Riverside Literature Series 



SHAKE5PEARES 
Henry V. 



PR 

ZQ\Z 
.A2W5 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DODmssma? 



9 



Houghton, Mifflin &T Co. 




Class _::__i_Z2±. 
Book^ 



Copyright N°_ 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrT: 



uttje Kitoersfae literature Series 

KING HENRY THE FIFTH 



BY 

WILLIAM SHAKESPEAKE 

FROM THE RIVERSIDE EDITION EDITED BY 
RICHARD GRANT WHITE 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
AND ADDITIONAL NOTES 

By EDWARD EVERETT HALE, Jr., Ph. D. 

Professor of English in Union College 




HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

Boston : 4 Park Street ; New York : 85 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago : 373-388 Wabash Avenue 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 19 1905 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS CX. XXc. No 

/ 3 X <?t+f 

COPY B. 



. A x Ws~ 



Copyright, 1883 and 1905, 
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

All rights reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., IT. S. A. 
Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. 



INTRODUCTION 

Henry V was first presented in the summer of 
1599. This we may infer from certain lines in the 



Prologue to Act V. Chorus has been telling of the 
welcome of the King to London after Agin- Da teoftiie 
court ; he goes on — play - 

" As, by a lower but loving likelihood, 
Were now the general of our gracious empress, 
As in good time he may, from Ireland coming, 
Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, 
How many would the peaceful city quit, 
To welcome him! " 

" The general of our gracious empress" was the Earl 
of Essex, who went to Ireland in the spring of 1599 
and returned in the fall. 

The date of a play is not in itself a matter of very 
great importance, yet it is of interest here. We know 
from the date that this play followed the two parts 
of Henry IV, making with them a trilogy of which 
Henry the Fifth was the hero. Henry VI, on the other 
hand, was written a good while before and has no con- 
nection with our play. We know from the date, too, 
that Henry V was the last of the historical plays, ex- 
cepting Henry VIII, which is a play of a different 
kind. We know it to belong to a period about the 
same as the strong and joyous comedies, As You Like 
It, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and just 
before the tragedies of Julius Ccesar and Hamlet. 
We know Shakespeare's general temper and disposi- 
tion while he was writing the play : it was the time 



4 INTRODUCTION 

when he was beginning to make a success in a business 
way. Certainly we could read the play intelligently or 
enjoy it on the stage without knowing these things ; 
still it does add to our appreciation of the strong 
soldier-king to remember, for instance, that Shake- 
speare drew his figure just before he imagined Brutus 
and Hamlet, those two so much greater and weaker. 
One does not want to give too much stress to the date 
of a play, but a recollection of it often helps one at a 
pinch. Thus one of the catchwords of Nym in the 
play is " That 's the humour of it." Humour is such 
an important Elizabethan word that one ought to 
look it up a little, but without further study Nym's 
constant use of it in the Merry Wives of Windsor 
(I, iii) is almost sufficient comment on his use in 
this play. As the Merry Wives was written about 
the same time as Henry V (before, unless Falstaff, 
Bardolph, and Nym are all brought to life for the 
occasion), we see that Nym was using a popular catch- 
word, or one associated with his character. Both in a 
large way and in a smaller, then, a knowledge of the 
date may help us. Fortunately it is something that 
we may learn with very little trouble, for so many stu- 
dents have looked into these matters that the results 
are open to anybody. 

The sources of this play are, as in the case of most 
of the histories, entirely clear. Shakespeare took the 
narrative of the chronicler Holinshed ! as a basis. 
Sources of Shakespeare often followed his authority 
the play. very closely ; sometimes in facts, as in I, i, 
1 ; I, i, 75 ; III, vi, 40 ; sometimes in words, as in II, 
iv, 102 ; III, vi, 164 ; V, ii, 341 ; sometimes in names, 

1 Raphael Holinshed compiled the Chronicles of England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, which were published in 1578. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

as III, v, 40. Those who study dramatic construction 
will notice a number of points of interest in comparing 
the play with the sources. Thus, Shakespeare shortens 
up the matter : from the play one gets the idea that 
Act V, with the negotiations for peace, follows directly 
after the battle of Agincourt. But really the Treaty 
of Troyes was five years after Agincourt, and in that 
time there was a whole campaign in France of which 
Shakespeare says nothing. That would not have done 
on the stage. Shakespeare wanted to give a striking 
picture of a glorious campaign ; so he gives merely the 
cause of war, the victory, and the peace. Absolute 
historic accuracy is something too complicated to pre- 
sent on the stage. 

The language, also, of this play, as of every play of 
Shakespeare's, is something we must pay attention to. 
In a general way everybody that reads English can 
understand Shakespeare ; still three centuries L angua g e 
have made changes in language. Some of ofthe i )la y- 
Shakespeare's words are now out of use. These we 
must know, nor is it a great task to learn them. But 
there are others which are a little more difficult, 
namely, words that are not obsolete in form, but which 
had then a meaning different from the modern one. 
There are sometimes a good many such words. Thus 
in Act II, Scene ii : — 

by and by, 1. 2 = at once 
enlarge, 1. 40 = set at liberty 

distemper, 1. 54 = drunkenness 
dear, 11. 58, 181 = extreme 
quick, 1. 79 = alive 

practis'd on, 1. 99 = cheated 
admiration, 1. 108 = wonder 
instance, 1. 119 = motive 
disco ver'd, 1. 151 = laid open 
rub, 1. 188 = obstacle 



6 INTRODUCTION 

Here are a number of words that every one knows. 
But if we pass over them without thought, we shall 
miss a full understanding of the passages where they 
occur. So one must put some study upon Shake- 
speare's language, the meanings of his words, and his 
grammatical constructions. 

There are other lines of Shakespearean study which 
are most interesting. The text of any play offers 
problems that must be solved by somebody, if we 
Lines oi are *° know what Shakespeare really wrote. 
iSedby" ^ ne me t re always offers some difficulties 
the play. ^^ cannot be settled, as most can, by a 
good ear and a habit of reading poetry. There are a 
number of allusions to things common in Shakespeare's 
day but unfamiliar now. Thus, when Pistol spoke of 
" plain-song " (III, ii, 7) he was talking of something 
familiar to every one ; so was the boy when he called 
Pistol "this roaring devil i' th' old play " (IV, iv, 73). 
There are a number of ideas that may be found else- 
where in literature : thus, the long speech describing 
the polity of the bees (I, ii, 183-220) has a parallel 
in Lyly's Euphues, and the two passages open a very 
interesting line of literary history, namely, ideas of 
nature in our older literature. And there are endless 
other lines of interesting literary study in this, as in 
every other play of Shakespeare's. 

But it would be a mistake if we should allow our- 
selves to be distracted by these things, interesting or 
necessary as they are, from an appreciation and en- 
The poetic joyment of the poetry, — of the play itself . 
SXntater- Some of these things, as the language and 
est * the text, are, while we are studying litera- 

ture, only means to an end. The language of Shake- 
speare, as of any other Elizabethan, is an interesting 



INTRODUCTION 7 

matter for the student of language to work upon. It 
is a proper subject for linguistic study, just as the 
language of a nation is ; and the student need have 
nothing to do with the poetry if he be so inclined. 
But the student of literature has a very different 
object, and with him the language is only a means 
to the end. So is study of the text. Other matters 
may have an independent interest to the student of 
literature : he may wish to have a clear idea of the 
mind of Shakespeare, of the spirit of the Elizabethan 
Age, of the development of the drama. Those are 
parts of the history of literature and good matters for 
study. But language and the history of literature, 
though connected with poetry, are matters very differ- 
ent from poetry. So if our aim is poetry, we shall 
want particularly to gain from the play true poetic 
enjoyment. And this will depend in a measure on our 
temperament and our taste. We may like poetry and 
read it eagerly ; we may not care for it and prefer to 
read something else. But whatever our taste and 
whatever our temperament, there is something more 
than pure enjoyment in the matter. As with every 
art, indeed every game, we need some knowledge. 
We want to know what Shakespeare was aiming at. 
There are many kinds of poetry : we are quite accus- 
tomed to some ; but in poetry of an older time espe- 
cially, there are often conditions or circumstances that, 
if known, will give us the true spirit of the piece, which 
we might otherwise have missed. Now Henry T^ is an 
interesting play to read because it gives us an excel- 
lent example of one characteristic of the Elizabethan 
drama, namely, the rhetorical quality. It gives us this 
more fully than any other play of Shakespeare's and 
it gives it to us with less admixture of other things. 



8 INTRODUCTION 

And this quality is one of which we do not have much 
on the stage to-day, and which we are therefore likely 
not to appreciate wholly in reading or seeing an Eliza- 
bethan play. 

The rhetorical quality of the Elizabethan drama was 
a result or a necessity of the character of the Eliza- 
bethan theatre. Every one knows that the theatre 
Rhetorical in which the plays of Shakespeare were ori- 
the Eliza- ginally given was very different from the 
drama. theatres in which we may see them to-day. L 
The stage was in the midst of the audience ; a part of 
the audience even sat upon the stage itself. There- 
fore scenery or even any careful grouping of char- 
acters was impossible. The actors advanced into the 
midst of the audience, made their speeches, and re- 
tired. There was no front curtain, and the scenes 
followed each other directly or were separated by 
music or comic business. Further we may note that 
these actors on a stage without scenery were not cos- 
tumed with historic accuracy. There were differences 
in costume, it is true ; different ranks were indicated 
and some other distinctions, but there was no effort 
to reproduce the real spectacle of the stirring events 
that form the subject of the play. We ourselves 
might say as much as this from our general know- 
ledge of the Elizabethan stage, but we have it also 
stated directly by Chorus in the Prologue to Act I. 
The appeal was not to the eye but to the imagination 
of the audience ; and it was made by stirring and 
spirited verse, well pronounced by the actor. How 
important a good elocution and delivery was we may 

1 A summary of the conditions of the Elizabethan theatre may 
be found in the edition of The Tempest in the Riverside Litera- 
ture Series. 



INTRODUCTION 9 

see from Hamlet's speech to the Players : there he is 
giving advice on the actor's art, but he hardly men- 
tions anything but elocution. 

Thus a Shakespearean play was more to be listened 
to than to be seen. Since realism was impossible, the 
dramatist was forced to use other means. And the 
audience, it will be remembered, could not Need of 
read, as our audiences do to-day. Even {Jrf C ai e " 
among the upper classes reading was not so i uaUt y- 
general as it is now. Probably few of Shakespeare's 
audience read much poetry. They heard poetry at the 
theatre, and for many of them that was the only way 
to get it at all. This was another reason why a de- 
clamatory style prevailed. So the Elizabethan stage 
tended more to poetry than ours does, and particularly 
to poetry which could be readily and effectually de- 
claimed. 

As has already been said, this rhetorical poetry is 
found more purely, as we may say, in Henry V than 
in the other plays. It is the tone of the play, the qual- 
ity it is noteworthy for. All Shakespeare's Rhetorical 
plays have something of it, but many of them Henry v. 
are especially noteworthy for other things. Some 
are remarkable for character, like Hamlet; many for 
humor, like Henry IV; or wit, like As You Like 
It; some for passion, like Romeo and Juliet ; some 
for fancy, like A Midsummer Night's Dream; and 
some are interesting for dramatic construction, like the 
Merchant of Venice. Henry V is not without these 
characteristics, but it has none of them to a very 
striking degree. The characters of the play are ap- 
propriate and natural, — Henry himself is a fine pic- 
ture of Shakespeare's ideal king, — but there are a 
hundred characters in the other plays better than the 



10 INTRODUCTION 

best in this. There are bits of humor, doubtless, and 
excellent of their kind. Fluellen is a humorous char- 
acter that a lesser dramatist might be proud of, but we 
do not think of him as in the same group with Falstaff, 
Sir Toby Belch, the First Gravedigger, Touchstone, 
and many more. And so it is with the other char- 
acteristics : we generally find something of them in 
Henry V, but not something to compare with Shake- 
speare's best. 

With the rhetorical quality it is not so. There are, 
without question, finer sustained speeches in Shake- 
speare than anything in Henry V. Any one who 
sustained loves poetry and who wants to form a taste 

in Shake- w iH d well to compare some of the famous 

speare's , L 

plays. long speeches in Shakespeare. We will note 

a few of the best known. 

Antony to the Roman Crowd. Julius Ccesar, III, ii, 69 ff. 

Hamlet's Soliloquies. Hamlet, I, ii, 129 ff. ; II, ii, 518 ff. ; III, i, 
56 ff. ; IV, iv, 32. 

Jaques' " All the World 's a Stage." As You Like It, II, vii, 
138 ff. 

Othello to the Senators. Othello, I, iii, 76 ff. 

Richard Ill's Soliloquy. Richard III, I, i, 1 ff. 

Portia : " The Quality of Mercy." Merchant of Venice, IV, i, 178 ff. 

Mercutio on Queen Mah. Romeo and Juliet, I, iv, 53 ff. 

Enobarhus's account of Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra, II, ii, 
190 ff. 

These every one will recognize as fine bits of declam- 
atory poetry of different kinds, of poetical rhetoric, 
we may call it. And in reading Henry V we shall see 
at once that we have much poetry of the same sort. 
In fact, if one reads the play with this point in mind, 
he will see that Henry's address to bis soldiers (HI, 
i, 1 ff.), or Exeter's account of the death of the Duke 
of York (IV, vi, 7 ff.), or the archbishop's account of 
the King (I, i, 24 ff.) are very characteristic pieces. 



INTRODUCTION 11 

They give us the quality of Henry V ; they are full 
of the spirit of the play. In fact, the play would not 
be itself without them. 

To see now how characteristic of Henry V are 
such passages, think of some extracts from character- 
other plays. From Hamlet, for instance : — ties of 
. . plays. 

Guildenstern. Prison, my lord ! 

Hamlet. Denmark 's a prison. 

Rosencranz. Then is the world one. 

Hamlet. A goodly one ; in which there are many confines, wards 
and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst. 

Rosencranz. We think not so, my lord. 

Hamlet. Why then, 't is none to you ; for there 's nothing either 
good or bad, hut thinking makes it so : to me it is a prison. 

That is characteristic of Hamlet ; it gives us charac- 
ter and philosophy ; we do not need the proper names 
to tell us where it comes from. But we have nothing 
of this in Henry V. 

To take something from Romeo and Juliet : — 

Juliet. Wilt thou be gone ? it is not yet near day : 
It was the nightingale, and not the lark. 
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear; 
Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate-tree : 
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale. 

That has the note of passion which is characteristic 
of Romeo and Juliet, and this is lacking, too, in 
Henry V. 

Take something from A Midsummer NigMs Dream : 

Titania. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman ; 
Hop in his walks, and gambol in his eyes ; 
Feed him with apricocks and dewberries, 
With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries ; 
The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees, 
And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs, 
And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, 
To have my love to bed and to arise ; 
And pluck the wings from painted butterflies, 
To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes : 
Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies. 



12 INTRODUCTION 

That has the fancy and the poetry that we associate 
with A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

And finally take something from Henry IV: — 

Falstaff. My lord, the man I know. 

Prince Henry. I know thou dost. 

Falstaff. But to say I know more harm in him than in myself, 
were to say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, his 
white hairs do witness it. . . . If sack and sugar be a fault, God help 
the wicked ! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host 
that I know is damned : if to be fat is to be hated, then Pharaoh's 
lean kine are to be loved, etc. 

That has the humor of Falstaff and is full of the 
spirit of the whole piece. Passages like these are 
characteristic of the plays they come from ; they give 
a taste of their quality. We might almost say there 
is nothing like them in Henry V ; at least the chief 
characteristic of Henry Fis very different from any 
of them. 

We have here then a striking characteristic of 
the poetry of our play. It is rhetorical, declamatory 
poetry. It is, in the main, spirited, vigorous, sonorous, 
Character- moving poetry. If it has nothing quite so 
of Henry v. fine as the finest of Shakespeare's declama- 
tory passages, yet it has much that surely is very fine. 

We shall not suppose that Henry V is peculiar in 
this respect. We have seen that the rhetorical char- 
acter was a dramatic quality of the time ; all plays 
Rhetorical had something of it. It was particularly 
common to common in the historical plays, the chronicles 
tories. of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. 

It was most natural that this should be the case. 
These plays were generally meant to present some epi- 
sode of English history in such a way as would appeal 
strongly to an English audience. Character, humor, 
passion, philosophy, charm, — these things by the 



INTRODUCTION 13 

nature of the case could not be the main thing in such 
plays. The main thing was to appeal to the patriotic 
pride that in Elizabeth's day ran strong in the heart 
of every Englishman. And this was to be done, under 
the circumstances of the theatre, not, as would be the 
case to-day, with the aid of elaborate costume and 
scenery, but simply by heightened and ennobled speech. 
The best of Shakespeare's plays are full of it, but 
he was not the inventor of it. Marlowe may have the 
credit — more, at least, than any one else — for elabo- 
rate theatrical rhetoric, though his chief play, Tam- 
burlaine the Great, is not an English chronicle play. 
His Edward II is almost as much a declamatory piece 
as Tamburlaine, though it lacks the long set speeches ; 
and so is Richard II, in which Shakespeare seems to 
have been influenced by Marlowe's way of writing. 
For the purpose of poetic appreciation, however, we 
need not know whether Shakespeare invented or fol- 
lowed ; the main thing is that we should get to know 
and appreciate the quality which Henry V presents 
more purely than the other historical plays. 

It is easy, of course, to look through the play, read 
the elaborate speeches, and recognize their rhetorical 
character. It may not be so easy to enjoy them. If, 
however, we would really appreciate the Apprecla . 
Elizabethan drama, we must get to feel at Jketo°rtcai S 
home in this rhetorical declamatory world, quality. 
It will be useful, then, to note the chief examples of 
this poetic rhetoric and remark what seems most im- 
portant about each. 

First, for various reasons, may come the so-called 
choruses. The chorus was a traditional fea- The 
ture in the drama of the Greeks and Romans. Choruses - 
There it served various purposes, but it was especially 



14 INTRODUCTION 

a means whereby the dramatist could speak directly 
to the audience. It was natural, therefore, to use it to 
give in narrative an account of things that could not 
well be presented by the actors. It was common also 
in those plays before Shakespeare which were written 
with classic models in mind. Thus Gorboduc, written 
about 1565 by Sackville and Norton, is not unlike a 
Latin tragedy, and indeed is, in its dramatic charac- 
ter, directly imitated from Seneca. It has a regular 
chorus between the acts. But so has the jSjjanish 
Tragedy, by Thomas Kyd, which is not at all classic 
in its general character. Shakespeare, as a rule, does 
not use the chorus. Sometimes he has a prologue, 
as in Henry VIII, or an epilogue, as in the second 
part of Henry IV. In Henry V there are choruses 
between the acts called prologues to the acts. In 
Pericles there are choruses between the acts and also 
in the middle of Acts I V^ and V. In Romeo and Jidiet 
Shakespeare may have meant to have choruses be- 
tween the acts, but actually there is only a prologue, 
and a chorus between Acts I and II. Generally Shake- 
speare accomplishes the purpose of the chorus in some 
other way. The chorus, however, is very appropriate 
to the rhetorical character of the English historical 
play, and perhaps Shakespeare had something of the 
sort in mind when he planned Henry V. It is worth 
mentioning that so great a Shakespearean actor as 
David Garrick chose the part of Chorus when he pre- 
sented Henry V. He understood that the character- 
istic quality of the play was its sonorous trumpet- 
flourish, and that this quality inhered essentially in the 
choruses. It is also worth noting that when Mr. Mans- 
field presented the play in New York, Chorus was 
so presented as to attract everybody, indeed astonish 



INTRODUCTION 15 

everybody by its appreciation of the possibilities of the 

part. 

To examine the choruses, then ; they usually narrate 

matters that cannot be presented dramatically. Such 

are in the main the prologues to Acts II, III, IV, 

V. But they also point out particularly the Function of 
, J ^i-ii • the Chorus 

dramatic means ot which they are so 1m- in Henry v. 

portant a part. Thus the prologue to Act I urges 

the audience to take the play as a stimulus to the 

imagination rather than as an adequate reproduction 

of what has taken place. So in the prologues to Act III, 

11. 33, 34 ; IV, 11. 49-53 ; V, 1-6. These show us the 

mood in which we must put ourselves to appreciate the 

play. We must not expect a realistic truth to nature; 

let us rather be ready to be inspired and aroused by 

imaginative language. In their narrative parts these 

choruses are fine examples of declamatory poetry ; in 

the rest they form an admirable criticism upon the 

poetry which gives the main quality to the play. 

Other long speeches in Shakespeare are of two kinds. 
Some are what might be called elaborations of general 
themes. They are entirely appropriate to their places in 
the play, but they are not really necessary to other sus- 
it as they stand; they have quite an inde- speeches, 
pendent interest. Taken from their places they are 
almost as effective as they are in their places. Such 
speeches, for instance, are the well-known " All the 
world 's a stage," or Mercutio's fantasia on Queen 
Mab, or Falstaffs disquisitions on honor or on sack 
in Henry IV. 

Of this kind in Henry V are : — 

1. The Archbishop of Canterbury's spirited independent 
description of the Polity of the Bees, I, ii, 183- speeclies - 
213. The speech is a development of the last words of 



16 INTRODUCTION 

Exeter's speech. But those words were but a reflection 
added to his approval of Westmoreland's opinion. The 
long descriptive speech of the Archbishop has there- 
fore no dramatic necessity. The last few lines belong 
to the situation, but the rest is one of those pieces 
of political speculation, of which there are many in 
Elizabethan literature. It may be compared with 
Gonzalo's speculation in Tlie Tempest, II, i, 141 ff. 

2. The King's fine exclamation on ceremony, IV, 
i, 229-283. This speech is entirely appropriate, en- 
tirely characteristic of the honest and straightforward 
man who utters it. But it certainly does not belong in 
any special way just where it stands. The really im- 
portant idea is not that of ceremony, but of the re- 
sponsibility of the King for those whom he commands, 
as is indicated in 11. 229-232. That is the idea that 
explains the King's whole attitude. The transition to 
the topic of ceremony (11. 232-238) is natural, how- 
ever, and the speech is a fine one. 

3. The Duke of Burgundy's description of France, 
V, ii, 23-67. This speech stands in closer connection 
with the rest of the scene than the others. Still its 
main interest is rhetorical rather than dramatic. 

4. The Archbishop's description of the King, I, i, 
24-59. Quite appropriate to its place in the play as 
this speech is, setting the key of general reflection, yet 
it is really an independent thing ; having, as Mr. 
White remarks in his note, no basis in fact, it has not 
much more in the situation whence it arises. 

Here also we may perhaps put the soliloquy of the 
Less indo- Boy (III, ii, 26-54) and the argument on 
speeches. the King's responsibility (IV, i, 146-184), 
though these have rather more connection with 
their places. Still that their interest is really in- 



INTRODUCTION 17 

dependent of their dramatic place will be seen on 
comparing them with the speeches of the second 
kind. 

The speeches of the second kind are those that 
arise more exactly from the dramatic situa- More drama _ 
tion. Such are : — tic speeches. 

The Archbishop's Explanation of the Salic Law. I, ii, 33-95. 

Henry's Answer to the Dauphin. I, ii, 259-297. 

Henry's Accusation of the Conspirators. II, ii, 79-144. 

Henry to his Army at Harfleur. Ill, i, 1-34. 

Henry to the Governor of Harfleur. Ill, iii, 1-43. 

Henry to Montjoy. Ill, vi, 142-169. 

Henry before the Battle. IV, iii, 18-67. 

Henry to Montjoy. IV, iii, 90-125. 

Exeter's Description of the Death of the Duke of York. IV, vi, 7-32. 

Henry to Katharine. V, ii, 132-168. 

These speeches, though more dramatic than those just 
mentioned, are still examples of rhetorical poetry. 
They are meant for delivery, they are speeches in the 
modern sense of the word, and as such they are ex- 
tremely characteristic of the play and of the Eliza- 
bethan stage. Let us then read them in the spirit in 
which they were written, as elaborate, sonorous, theatri- 
cal declamation. 

If we are to appreciate Henry V we must appreci- 
ate this kind of poetry. It is not much in fashion to- 
day, at least on the English stage : our dramatists 
avoid long speeches and our actors neglect Disappear- 
the elocution necessary to deliver them. We rhetorical 
lay stress on very different matters : our from 1 the 
theatre appeals to the eye almost as much as Sage" 1 
to the ear ; our aim is to be realistic rather than 
imaginative. But in reading Henry V we must accus- 
tom ourselves to this rhetorical poetry, for it is the 
most striking element of the play. 



18 INTRODUCTION 

A few words may be added on some other points. 
The subject-matter of the play Shakespeare found, 
Construe- as has been noted, in the pages of Holin- 
HenryV. shed. Without comparing the play with 
the chronicle, it will be useful to make a sum- 
mary of the dramatic action, both in general and in 
detail. 

The dramatic action here has a more obvious unity 
than in some other of Shakespeare's histories. It is 
always worth while, however, to try to state the sub- 
Dramatic stance of the dramatic motive of any of his 
action of the . ~ 

play. plays in a iew words, to uncover the main 

idea from the externals in which it is presented, to get 
a good notion of the true unity of the play. The dra- 
matic action of Henry l^may be stated very shortly as 
follows. 

Henry the Fifth declares war upon France to make 
good the claims upon that country which he had in- 
herited from Edward the Third. He gathers an army 
Argument anc ^ makes a brilliant beginning in the cap- 
of the play. ^ ure Q f Harfleur. In marching from that 
town to Calais he comes up with the main army of 
the French and wins a glorious and decisive victory 
at Agincourt. His success compels peace, in which 
his claims are recognized. A marriage between the 
Princess Katharine and himself is arranged as a pledge 
of continued good feeling. 

These are the facts. Dramatically, however, we may 
say that Shakespeare's purpose was to present, by 
means of this glorious achievement of English arms, 
Purpose of a picture of ideal kinghood and ideal Eng- 
thepiay. j^ character. Thus the main figures will be 
Henry himself and typical figures chosen to represent 
his army from highest to lowest. 



INTRODUCTION 19 

We may go further in stating the action from the 

dramatic standpoint. It may be conveniently Dramatic 
j • i • 1 x j develop- 

arranged in an analysis by act and scene. meat. 

Prologue. An apology for the attempt to present such great things 
with such small means. (See p. 15.) 

Act I. The Causes of the War. 

Scene i. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely, in a 
conversation upon the interests of the church, disclose the position of 
King Henry the Fifth, his character and his plans. In this scene 
Shakespeare, as often elsewhere, introduces the main dramatic motive 
by means of minor characters ; so he has done in Hamlet and Romeo 
and Juliet, though not in all the plays. 

Scene ii. The King has called the Archbishop to expound the law to 
him in regard to the claims he has made on France. Has he right on 
his side when he makes demand of the French King to be recog- 
nized as sovereign of Aquitaine, Normandy, Maine and Anjou, under 
the threat that he will otherwise take arms to enforce his claim to 
the throne of France itself ? The Archbishop argues at length that he 
has right on his side. War is determined on and plans are made for 
the safety of the kingdom during the King's absence. The French 
ambassadors who are at hand are summoned. They deliver a scornful 
message from the French heir apparent and receive a declaration of 
the King's purpose. 

Act II. Preparation for the War. 

Prologue. All England is stirred to excitement in preparation. 

Scene i. Even the old blackguards and rascals of the King's earlier 
days are aroused. Pistol, Bardolph, and Nym make preparation to 
join the army. Falstaff would be going too, but word comes that he 
is dead. This is one of the humorous scenes that Shakespeare often 
sandwiches in between the serious and poetic scenes. 

Scene ii. Before the King leaves England all must be safe at home. 
Henry has discovered a conspiracy among the high nobles of his court. 
The conspirators are arrested and sent to the block, and the King is 
ready to start. 

Scene Hi. The humorous ruffians are seen again. 

Scene iv. The French hear of Henry's purpose. There is a difference 
of opinion as to what action shall be taken. The Dauphin thinks that 
the nobility of France have but to show themselves to drive the 
English from their country. The Constable urges that the matter 
is of more importance. The Duke of Exeter, Henry's uncle and 
representative, is introduced, and delivers England's demand and de- 
fiance. 



20 INTRODUCTION 

Act m. The Campaign in France. 

Prologue. Chorus tells of the embarkation of the army and of 
England left behind. 

Scene i. Henry leads his army to the assault of Harfleur. 

Scene ii. The humorous ruffians appear, and also stalwart represent- 
atives of the real strength of King Henry's army, Gower the English- 
man, Fluellen the Welshman, Jamy the Scotchman, and Macmorris 
the Irishman. They give us word of the siege. 

Scene Hi. Henry demands the surrender of the town, which is 
conceded. 

Scene iv. In the French King's palace the Princess Katharine takes 
a lesson in English. There is question of her marriage with Henry, 
and she wishes to prepare for any fortune. 

Scene v. The French nobles make more warlike preparation for 
meeting the English. 

Scene vi. The English army on its march to Calais comes upon the 
French at the river Ternois. The French attempt to hold a bridge, 
but the English capture it. The French Herald bears to Henry the 
defiance of the French King. 

Scene vii. The French nobles, encamped near Agincourt, long for 
day, that they may attack the English. 

Act IV. The Battle of Agincourt. 

Prologue. Chorus tells of the night before Agincourt, and turns 
attention especially to the royal captain of the English army. 

Scene i. Henry passes about his camp in disguise, to feel the spirit 
of his men and encourage the waverers. We see all ranks and kinds 
of Englishmen : the lords, the captains, and the private men ; the brave 
and the boastful. With each Henry has a word, pausing especially, 
as was common with English kings, in story at least, to talk familiarly 
with the sturdy yeomen. In fact, he gets into a dispute with one of 
them and leaves a glove as a gage. 

Scene ii. The French prepare for battle. 

Scene Hi. The English prepare. 

Scene iv. The battle is joined. The boaster Pistol falls in with a 
Frenchman whom he can beat, and takes him prisoner. This humor- 
ous scene is almost the only hint we get of the battle which is in 
progress ; if the cowards in the English army do so much, what must 
not the brave do ? 

Scene v. The French are in retreat. 

Scene vi. The English are not quite sure of the victory they have 
■won. 

Scene vii. The King is assured of his victory and the losses of the 
French. He gives the glory to God. 

Scene viii. The half -humorous incident of the glove is taken up 



INTRODUCTION 21 

from Scene i and finished. The King- takes a formal account of the 
losses of the French. He continues his march to Calais and returns 
to England. 

Act V. Peace. 

Prologue. Chorus tells us of Henry's return after Agincourt, of 
the rejoicings of England, and of negotiations for peace. 

Scene i. The English are still in camp in France. Captain Fluellen 
shows the braggart Pistol in his true colors. 

Scene ii. The French and the English kings meet for discussion of 
terms of peace. While the lords and commissioners, on either side, 
discuss the details, Henry has half an hour with the Princess 
Katharine, whose hand in marriage he asks now after the war as he 
had asked it before. The other terms are agreed upon and the play 
ends. 

Such is the subject-matter of the play. Dramati- 
cally it is quite clear that the single line of action 
comes to its climax in the Battle of Agin- summary 
court, and is composed to a satisfying issue opment." 
in the declaration of peace and the marriage of the 
King. 

We may state the topics thus : — 

Act I. Introduction (Sc. i) and explanation (Sc. ii) of the main 
motive, the Campaign in France. 

Act II. Development of the motive : preparation for the Campaign. 
The scenes are humorous (Sc. i, iii) and serious (Sc. ii, iv) in turn. 

Act III. Continuation of the motive : the Campaign. The Eng- 
lish are successful at Harfleur (Sc. i, ii, iii) and the bridge of Ternois 
(Sc. vi), but the French have gathered in force at Agincourt (Sc. vii). 

Act IV. The climax of the main motive : the Battle of Agincourt, 
the Crowning Point of the Campaign. We have the Preparation (Sc. i, 
ii, iii), the Field of Battle (Sc. iv), and the Defeat of the French and 
Victory of the English (Sc. v, vi, vii, viii). 

Act V. Conclusion of the motive : the End of the Campaign (Sc. i) 
and the Treaty of Peace (Sc. ii). 

This is a simple and natural dramatic development. 
It has beginning, continuation, climax, and end. It 
has hardly anything that can be called an Dramatic 
episode : even III, iv has close enough rela- structure - 
tion to the main theme to be called a part of it ; V, i, 



22 INTRODUCTION 

perhaps, has least to do with the main action. In gen- 
eral the different acts clearly present the phases of the 
action. There are two or three points which are not 
clear. Why, for instance, should the French prepara- 
tion for the battle be in Act III and the English in 
Act IV? But these are slight matters ; in general we 
may say that we have a single action developed to a 
crisis and brought to an end, and a far more simple 
and regular action than is common in Shakespeare's 
histories. The different periods of the action are 
marked and emphasized by the prologues to the acts, 
and the whole motive grows steadily in the mind and 
comes to a sufficient close. 

If we look to another important element, namely 
character, we shall not find very much of importance 
beside the figure of the King himself. Henry /Fhad 
three characters that were interesting, the 
King, the Prince, and Hotspur, besides one 
of the very first order, Falstaff. But in the later play 
Henry IV, Hotspur, and Falstaff are dead and there 
are none to fill their places. The English and 
French nobles are little more than slightly indicated 
figures ; Bardolph and Nym are survivals only. The 
only real characters of interest beside Henry are Flu- 
ellen and Pistol. Of Henry V not much need be said. 
As is indicated in the Archbishop's speech, Shake- 
speare means to present an ideal King, a man with 
faults, but perfectly conscious of his duties and using 
all his great powers to fulfill them. Shakespeare rarely 
drew such a figure, the practical man of action, the 
kind of man that makes the world go. Such men do 
not give such good material for the drama as men of 
greater passions and greater faults, like Romeo, Ham- 
let, Lear. In Theseus, Shakespeare seems to give us 



INTRODUCTION 23 

a glance at such a man, in Fortinbras he hints at him, 
but in Henry V only does he present him fully. 

To summarize, then, we have in Henry V a play in 
which the action is simple and developed without re- 
finement or complication, in which the characters are 
sufficient and wholly in harmony with the 
dramatic motive, but whose striking quality Summary - 
is the sonorous and effective poetic rhetoric in which, 
as in the note of a trumpet, presents itself this dra- 
matic embodiment of English greatness. 



The performance of Henry V by the Ben Greet 
company of players, on a stage of the Elizabethan 
fashion, offered an interesting confirmation of the views 
just expressed of the rhetorical, declamatory character 
of the play. This performance was in striking con- 
trast with the elaborately scenic productions, of which 
there have been several in recent years. The stage 
was a plain hall, the furnishings were of the simplest, 
the costumes were of the Elizabethan fashion with the 
addition of typical pieces of armor : realism was, in 
fact, at its lowest point. Yet under these circum- 
stances, in fact, because of them, the poetry in the 
piece showed itself at its true worth. There were no 
pauses between the acts and the fine poetic rhetoric 
rolled on with the effect on the imagination that a 
noble panorama would have made on the eye. With 
everything taken away that belongs especially to a 
modern performance, the intrinsic quality of the play 
was easily seen and readily appreciated. 



BIBLIOGKAPHY 

It may be serviceable to add a few of the most avail- 
able helps to one who would not only enjoy Shake- 
speare, but study so that one may enjoy the better. 
In general, Dowden's Shakespere Primer presents a 
great deal in a very convenient form. The best gen- 
eral book is Mabie's William /Shakespeare. The best 
biography is that by Sidney Lee. Most suggestive of 
the studies of the growth of Shakespeare's genius is 
Dowden's Shakespere: His Mind and Art. The aids 
to linguistic study are Bartlett's Concordance to 
Shakespeare, Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon (3d edi- 
tion by G. Sarrazin), Abbott's Shakespearean Gram- 
mar, or for those who read German, Franz's Shake- 
speare- Grammatik. Richard Grant White's Studies 
in Shakespeare presents, besides a critical study of 
several individual plays, a clear exposition of the 
periods of the poet's work and a complete discussion 
of the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy. As to the text 
there are many library editions, the " Riverside," from 
which our text is taken, being as good as any and 
better than most. Very useful to the reader is Bell's 
Reader s Shakespeare in three volumes, in which the 
plays, somewhat cut down, it is true, are presented with 
such suggestions for reading and emphasis as often do 
much to bring out the meaning. 



NOTE 

This edition of King Henry the Fifth presents the text and 
notes of the Riverside Edition. In a few cases Mr. White's 
notes have been omitted, but as a rule they will be found ver- 
batim, marked W. Of the additional notes, some give meanings 
that have changed since Shakespeare's day, in order to carry 
out Mr. White's plan of giving the meaning of obsolete words. 
Such a help is quite necessary to the student who does not wish 
to distract his attention from the poetry every moment to gain 
linguistic information. But besides these, it has seemed well to 
add notes on the dramatic purpose of scene, action, and char- 
acter, and on the poetic significance of phrase or speech. These 
matters are also touched upon in the Introduction, but the notes 
give especial applications. All references to plays are given in 
the numbering of the Riverside Shakespeare. 

E. E. H., Jr. 



DRAMATIS PERSONS 



King Henry the Fifth. 

Duke of Glouces- } brothers 
tek, > to the 

Duke of Bedford, ) King. 

Duke of Exeter, uncle to the 
King. 

Duke of York, cousin to the 
King. 

Earls of Salisbury, West- 
moreland, and Warwick. 

Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Bishop of Ely. 

Earl of Cambridge. 

Lord Scroop. 

Sir Thomas Grey. 

Sir Thomas Erpingham, 
Gower, Fluellen, Macmor- 
ris, Jamy, officers in King 
Henry's army. 

Bates, Court, Williams, sol- 
diers in the same. 

Pistol, Nym, Bardolph. 

Boy. 

A Herald. 

K . Scene : England ; 



Charles the Sixth, King of 
France. 

Lewis, the Dauphin. 

Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, 
and Bourbon. 

The Constable of France. 

Rambukes and Grandpre, 
French Lords. 

Governor of Harjleur. 

Montjoy, a French Herald. 

Ambassadors to the King of Eng- 
land. 

Isabel, Queen of France. 
Katharine, daughter to Charles 

and Isabel. 
Alice, a lady attending on her. 
Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap, 

formerly Mistress Quickly, and 

now married to Pistol. 

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, 
Citizens, Messengers, and At- 
tendants. 
Chorus. 
afterwards France. 



KING HENRY THE FIFTH 



PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chor. for a Muse of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of invention, 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act 
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! * — - 
Then should the warlike Harrj, like himself, — 
Assume the port of Mars ; and at his heels, >0 

Leash'd in l ike hound s, shojild^amin^^aw^rd and fire ^p 
Crou^hJioi^employment. f But pardon, gentles all, 
The flat unraised spirits that have dar'd 
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth 10 

So great an object : can this cockpit hold 
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram 
Within this wooden O the very casques q 

That did affright the air at Agincourt ? — - ^y 
O, pardon ! since a crooked figure may 

2. invention : four syllables, as million, line 16, is three. W. 

10. The theatrical allusions in the speeches of Chorus are 
very interesting. The stage is called a scaffold because it really 
was one placed in the middle of the circle, " this wooden O," 
" the girdle of these walls," in which the spectators sat and 
stood. It is called a cockpit probably because it was not unlike 
one ; several of the older theatres were used at times for bull 
and bear baiting and for cockfighting. One of the theatres 
built shortly after this time was called The Cockpit. 



28 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

Attest in little place a million ; 

-And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, — . \\ 
-On your imaginary forces work. 
Suppose within the girdle of these walls 
Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies, 20 

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts 
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder : 
Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ; 
Into a thousand parts divide one man, 
And make imaginary puissance ; 
Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them 
Printing their proud hoofs i' th' receiving earth ; 
For 't is your thoughts that now must deck our kings, 
Carry them here and there ; jumping o'er times, 
Turning th' accomplishment of many years 30 

Into an hour-glass: for the which supply, 
Admit me Chorus to this history ; 
Who prologue-like your humble patience pray, 
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. [Exit. 



ACT I 

Scene I. London. An antechamber in the King's palace. 
Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely. 
Cant. My lord, I '11 tell you ; that self bill is urg'd, 
Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign 

18. imaginary = imaginative. In 1. 25 the word has the 
modern meaning. 

26. This was Shakespeare's general view of stage-setting. 
Cf. the satire on Wall and Moonshine in A Midsummer Night's 
Dream, III, i, 40-65, and V, i, 125-250. 

1. bill : after this scene we hear no more of the bill. It dis- 
appears when it has served its purpose of introducing King 
Henry by the very nattering mention of the archbishop. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 29 

Was like, and had indeed against ns pass'd, r> 

But that the scambling and unquiet time •— - ^- 
Did push it out of farther question. 

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? 

Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against 
us, 
We lose the better half of our possession : 
For all the temporal lands which men devout 
By testament have given to the church 10 

Would they strip from us ; being valu'd thus : 
As much as would maintain, to the King's honour, 
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights, 
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires ; 
And, to relief of lazars and weak age, 
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil, 
A hundred almshouses right well supplied ; 
And to the coffers of the King beside, 
A thousand pounds by the year : thus runs the bill. 

Ely. This would drink deep. 

Cant. 'T would drink the cup and all. 

Ely. But what prevention ? 21 

Cant. The King is full of grace and fair 
gard. 

Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. 

Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not. *•**• "j 
The breath no sooner left his father's body, 
But that his wildness, mortified in him, -*— *^ 

Seem'd to die too ; yea, at that very" moment ^ —h> 

Consideration, like an angel, came Jf ***l 

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,**'* 

24. courses: these are the courses presented in 1 Henry IV. 
Shakespeare merely alludes to them as well known to his audi- 
ence. The contrast between the wild youth and the serious 
king is not necessary to his purpose in this play. 



4i 
dr re-1 , , 



3# KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

Leaving his body as a paradise, 3f 

To envelope and contain celestial spirits. 

Never was such a sudden scholar made ; 

Never came reformation in a flood, — — 

With such a heady current, scouring faults ; q 

Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness -— £ ~* J 

So soon did lose his seat and all at once 

As in this kino;. —— 



^ 



Ely. We are blessed in the change. 

Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, 
And all-admiring with an inward wish — J 
You would desire the King were made a prelate : 4f 
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 
You would say it hath been all in all his study : 
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 
A fearful battle render'd you in music : iL_ F ^ 
Turn him to any cause of policy, 
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, »J\ 

Familiar as his garter : that, when he speaks, 
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, ^ kk 

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, 
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences ; 5# 

So that the art and practic part of life 
Must be the mistress to this theoric : 
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, 
Since his addiction was to courses vain, 
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow, 
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports, 

33. reformation in a flood : an allusion to Hercules's cleans- 
ing of the Augean stables by turning a river through them. W. 

38. Hear him but reason in divinity, etc. All this is mere 
fancy ; there is no evidence that Henry V had these faculties and 
accomplishments. W. 

51. practic = practical. 



Scene I] klNG HENRY THE FIFTHJjt «1 

And never noted in him any study, 
Any retirement, any sequestration 
From open haunts and popularity. 

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle 
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : 
And so the Prince obscur'd his contemplation 
-T^der- th^veil of wildness^ which, no croubt, 
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, *>Jh 
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. 

Cant. It must be so ; for miracles are ceas'd ,* 
And therefore we must needs admit the means 
How things are perfected. 

.Ely. But, my good lord, 

How now for mitigation of this bill 79 

Urg'd by the commons ? Doth his majesty 
Incline to it, or no ? 

Cant. He seems indifferent, 

Or rather swaying more upon our part 
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us ; 
For I have made an offer to his majesty, 
Upon our spiritual convocation 
And in regard of causes now in hand, 
Which I have open'd to his grace at large, 
As touching France, to give a greater sum 
Than ever at one time the clergy yet 89 

Did to his predecessors part withal. 

Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord? 

Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty ; 

59. popularity = unreserved intercourse with common peo- 
ple. W. 

61. And wholesome berries, etc. One of those foolish fan- 
cies that originate in a love of mystery. It was long- prevalent. W. 

74. exhibiters = those who brought forward the bill. 




32 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

Save that there was not time enough to hear, 

As I perceiv'd his grace would fain have done, 

The severals and unhidden passages 

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms 

And generally to the crown and seat of France 

Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. 89 

Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off? 

Cant. The French ambassador upon that instant 
Crav'd audience ; and the hour, I think, is come 
To give him hearing : is it four o'clock ? 

Ely. It is. 

Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy; 
Which I could with a ready guess declare, 
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. 

Ely. I '11 wait upon you, and I long to hear it. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene II. The same. The presence chamber. 

Enter King Henry, Gloucester^Bedford, Exeter, Warwick, 
Westmoreland, and Attendants. 

K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canter- 
bury ? 

Exe. Not here in presence. 

K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle. 

West. Shall we call, in th' ambassador, my liege ? \ 

K. Hen. Not yet, my-cousin, we would be resolv'd, 
Before we hear him, of some things of weight 
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. 
Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely. 

Cant. God and his angels guard your sacred throne 
And make you long become it ! 

Scene II. This scene develops rapidly the idea presented 
in the one before. 
8. become = adorn. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 33 

K. Hen. Sure, we thank you. 

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed 
And justly and religiously unfold 10 

Why the law Salique that they have in France 
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim : 
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, 
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, 
Or nicely charge your understanding soul 
With opening titles miscreate, whose right 
Suits not in native colours with the truth ; 
For God doth know how many now in health 
Shall drop their blood in approbation 
Of what your reverence shall incite us to. 20 

Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, 
How you awake our sleeping sword of war: 
We charge you, in the name of God, take heed ; 
For never two such kingdoms did contend 
Without much fall of blood ; whose guiltless drops 
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 
'Gainst him whose wrong gives edge unto the swords 
That make such waste in brief mortality. 
Under this conjuration speak, my lord ; 
For we>will hear, note and believe in heart 30 

That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd 
As pure as sin with baptism. 

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you 
peers, 
That owe yourselves, your lives and services 
To this imperial throne. There is no bar 
To make against your highness' claim to France 

14. bow = bend or turn your interpretation. 

15. nicely = in a very special manner. 

20. Compare with this the king's speech in IV, i, 146 ff._ 

21. impawn ,= put in pawn, commit. 



34 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

But this, which they produce from Pharamoncl, 

" In terram Salicain mulieres ne succedant : " 

" No woman shall succeed in Salique land : " 

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze 40 

To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 

The founder of this law and female bar. 

Yet their own authors faithfully affirm 

That the land Salique is in Germany, 

Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe ; 

Where Charles the Great, having subdu'd the Saxons, 

There left behind and settled certain French ; 

Who, holding in disdain the German women 

For some dishonest manners of their life, 

Establish 'd then this law ; to wit, no female 50 

Should be inheritrix in Salique land : 

Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, 

Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. 

Then doth it well appear the Salique law 

Was not devised for the realm of France ; 

Nor did the French possess the Salique land 

Until four hundred one and twenty years 

After defunction of King Pharamond, 

Idly suppos'd the founder of this law ; 

Who died within the year of our redemption 60 

Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great 

Subdu'd the Saxons, and did seat the French 

Beyond the river Sala, in the year 

37. Pharamond was, according to legend, the first King of 
France. 

40. gloze = explain, as with a gloss. 

46. Charles the Great = Charlemagne. W. 

49. dishonest = unchaste. S. simply took the word from 
Holinshed. W. 

61. Four hundred twenty-six. These dates and the accom- 
panying arithmetic S. took without question from Holinshed. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 35 

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, 

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, 

Did, as heir general, being descended 

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair, 

Make claim and title to the crown of France. 

Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown 

Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male 70 

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, 

To find his title with some shows of truth, 

Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught, 

Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare, 

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son 

To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son 

Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth, 

Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, 

Could not keep quiet in his conscience, 

Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied 80 

That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, 

Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare, 

Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine : 

By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great 

Was re-united to the crown of France. 

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, 

King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim, 

King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear 

To hold in right and title of the female : 

So do the kings of France unto this day ; \ 90 

Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law 

To bar your highness claiming from the female, 

72. to find = to provide. W. 

74. Convey'd = passed himself off. 

75. Charlemain : taken from Holinshed. It should be Charles 
the Bald. There are other errors, but of even less importance 
to S.'s readers. W. 



36 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

And rather choose to hide them in a net 
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles 
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. 

K. Hen. May I with right and conscience make 

this claim ? """ 

Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign! 
For in the book of Numbers is it writ, 
When the man dies, let the inheritance 
Descend unto the daughter. ^Gracious lord, 100 

Stand for your own ; unwind your bloody flag ; ( 
Look back into your mighty ancestors :| 
Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb, 
From whom you claim ; invoke his warlike spirit, 
And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, 
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, 
Making defeat on the full power of France, 
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill 
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp 
Forage in blood of French nobility. 110 

O noble English, that could entertain 
With half their forces the full pride of France 
And let another half stand laughing by, 
All out of work and cold for action ! 

94. imbare. The passage is puzzling, but the word seems 
to mean to make bare, put into light. 

96. The archbishop has urged that the law, if rightly under- 
stood, is no bar to Henry's claim, and that the title of the King 
of France to his own throne shows it to be so. Henry would 
seem hardly to follow the reasoning: after this long explanation 
he asks directly for the result. He has asked expert advice, 
and means to take it, or possibly he desires definite and public 
justification for the course he means to pursue. 

103. great-grandsire: Edward III. 

108. on a hill. Edward III stood on a hill by a windmill at 
Crecy, and saw the Black Prince defeat the French. Only part 
of the English army was engaged. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 37 

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead 
And with your puissant arm renew their feats : 
You are their heir ; you sit upon their throne ; 
The blood and courage that renowned them 
Runs in your veins ; and my thrice-puissant liege 
Is in the very May-morn of his youth, 120 

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. 

Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the 
earth 
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, 
As did the former lions of your blood. 

West. They know your grace hath cause and means 
and might ; 
So hath your highness ; never King of England 
Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects, 
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England 
And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. 

Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, 130 
With blood and sword and fire to win your right ; 
In aid whereof we of the spiritualty 
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum 
As never did the clergy at one time 
Bring in to any of your ancestors. 

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the 
French, 
But lay down our proportions to defend — I 

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us | 

With all advantages. 

Cant. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, 
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend 141 

Our inland from the pilfering borderers. 

126. i. e., they are right. 

129. They already think themselves encamped in France. 

137. proportions = calculations, plans. 




38 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers 
only, 
But fear the main intendment of the Scot, 
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us ; 
For you shall read that my great-grandfather 
Never went with his forces into France 
But that the Scot on his unfurnished kingdom 
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, 
With ample and brim fullness of his force, 
Galling the gleaned land with hot assays, 
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns ; 
That England, being empty of defence, ^ H 

Hath shook and trembled at th' ill neighbourhood. 

Cant. She hath been then more f ear'd than harm'd, 
my liege ; 
For hear her but exampled by herself : 
When ajl her chivalry hath been in France 
And she a mourning widow of her nobles, 
She hath herself not only well defended 
But taken and impounded as a stray 160 

The King of Scots ; whom she did send to France, 
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings 
And make her chronicle as rich with praise 
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea 
With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries. 

West. But there 's a saying very old and true, 

" If that you will France win, 
Then with Scotland first begin : " 

145. still = always, as generally in Shakespeare. 
145. giddy = excitable, hot-headed. 

150. brim fullness : an astonishing example of S.'s reckless- 
ness in the use of language. W. 

151. assays = attempts. 

155. more fear'd = more frightened. W. 

156. For . . . herself. The archbishop refers to the year 
1346, when Edward III was absent in France. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 39 

For once the eagle England being in prey, 

To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 170 

Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs, 

Playing the mouse in absence of the cat, 

To tear and havoc more than she can eat. 

Exe. It follows then the cat must stay at home : 
Yet that is but a curs'd necessity, 
Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, 
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. 
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, 
The advised head defends itself at home ; 
For government, though high and low and lower, 180 
Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, 
Congruing in a full and natural close, 
Like music. 

Cant. Therefore doth heaven divide 
The state of man in divers functions, 
Setting endeavour in continual motion ; 
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, 
Obedience : for so work the honey-bees, 
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach 
The act of order to a peopled kingdom. 
They have a king and officers of sorts ; 190 

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, 
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, 
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 

175. curs'd necessity = a bitter, sharp, shrewd necessity. W. 

182. congruing = harmonizing. The Folio has congreeing, 
which, if used by Shakespeare, was probably formed on the spur 
of the moment, for it is not found elsewhere. 

183. See p. 16 for comment on this speech. 
186. butt = a kind of target at archery. 

190. a king : in point of fact a queen, there being no Salic 
law in the hive. 

190. sorts = various ranks. W. 



40 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds, 
Which pillage they with merry march bring home 
To the tent-royal of their emperor ; 
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 
The singing masons building roofs of gold, 
The civil citizens kneading up the honey, 
The poor mechanic porters crowding in 200 

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, 
The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, 
Delivering o'er to executors pale 
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer, 
That many things, having full reference 
To one consent, may work contrariously : 
As many arrows, loosed several ways, 
Come to one mark ; as many ways meet in one town ; 
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea ; 
As many lines close in the dial's centre ; 210 

So may a thousand actions, once afoot, 
End in one purpose, and be all well borne 
Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege. 
Divide your happy England iuto four ; 
Whereof take you one quarter into France, 
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake. 
If we, with thrice such powers left at home, 
Cannot defend our own doors from the dog, 
Let us be worried and our nation lose 
The name of hardiness and policy. 220 

K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from the 

Dolphin. [Exeunt some Attendants. 

199. civil, as opposed to military. 

210. dial, the sun-dial. 

221. Dolphin. The title Dauphin came from the proper 
name Dauphin, which in turn was from the dolphin on the coat- 
of-arms. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 41 

Now are we well resolv'd ; and, by God's help, 

And yours, the noble sinews of our power, 

France being ours, we '11 bend it to our awe, 

Or break it all to pieces : or there we '11 sit, 

Ruling in large and ample empery 

O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms, 

Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, 

Tombless, with no remembrance over them : 

Either our history shall with full mouth 230 

Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, 

Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, 

Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph. 

Enter Ambassadors of France. 

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure 
Of our fair cousin Dolphin ; for we hear 
Your greeting is from him, not from the King. 

First Amb. May 't please your majesty to give us 
V leave 

i )L Freely to render what we have in charge ; 
^ Or shall we sparingly show you far off 

The Dolphin's meaning and our embassy ? 240 

A\ K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian ^*"1 
V king ; JM 

Unto whose grace our passion is as subject 
\ As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons : 
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness 
Tell us the Dolphin's mind. 

227. In the middle ages France was more of a combination 
of powerful dukedoms than a kingdom. The dukes of Nor- 
mandy, Burgundy, Brittany, and others were practically inde- 
pendent rulers, and were obedient to the King of France only as 
he could compel obedience. 

232. mute — a servant whose tongue has been cut out. 

233. waxen = soft, perishable ; suggested by waxen tablets 
for writing. W. 



42 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act I 

First Amb. Thus, then, in few. 

Your highness, lately sending into France, 
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right 
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third. 
In answer of which claim, the prince our master 
Says that you savour too much of your youth, 250 

And bids you be advis'd there 's nought in France 
That can be with a nimble galliard won ; 
You cannot revel into dukedoms there. -"""" y. 
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, ^ 
This tun of treasure ; and, in lieu of this, 
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim 
Hear no more of you. This the Dolphin speaks. 

K. Hen. What treasure, uncle ? 

Exe. Tennis-balls, my liege. 

iT. Hen. We are glad the Dolphin is so pleasant 
with us ; 
His present and your pains we thank you for : 260 
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, 
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set 
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. 
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler 
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd -** 

With chaces. And we understand him well, 
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, 
Not measuring what use we made of them. 
We never valued this poor seat of England ; 
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself 270 

247. certain dukedoms : Normandy, Brittany, Touraine, 
and the earldoms of Anjou and Maine. 

259. pleasant = full of jest. 

261. rackets, set, hazard, chaces : technical terms in the 
game of court tennis. 

267. The Dauphin was thinking that Henry was still his 
younger self. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 43 

To barbarous license ; as 't is ever common 

That men are merriest when they are from home. 

But tell the Dolphin I will keep my state, 

Be like a king and show my sail of greatness 

When I do rouse me in my throne of France : 

For that I have laid by my majesty 

And plodded like a man for working-days, 

But I will rise there with so full a glory 

That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, 

Yea, strike the Dolphin blind to look on us..*— y*280 

And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his 

Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones ; and his soul 

Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance 

That shall fly with them : for many a thousand widows 

Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands; 

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down ; 

And some are yet ungotten and unborn 

That shall have cause to curse the Dolphin's scorn. 

But this lies all within the will of God, 

To \hom I do appeal ; and in whose name 290 

Tell you the Dolphin I am coming on, 

To veWe me as I may, and to put forth 

My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. 

So get you hence in peace ; and tell the Dolphin 

His jest will savour but of shallow wit, 

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it. 

Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well. 

[Exeunt Ambassadors, 

Exe. This was a merry message. — . 

K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it. 
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour 300 

That may give f urth'rance to our expeditioV ; 

282. gun-stones = cannon balls, made at first of stone. W. 
300. happy = fortunate. 



44 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 



A 



For we have now no thought in us but France, 
Save those to God, that run before our business. 
Therefore, let our proportions for these wars 
Be soon collected and all things thought upon 
That may with reasonable swiftness add 
More feathers to our wings ; for, God before, 
We '11 chide this Dolphin at his father's door. 
Therefore let every man now task his thought, 
That this fair action may on foot be brought. 310 

[Exeunt. Flourish- 

ACT II 
PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chor. Now all the youth of England are on fire, 
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies : 
Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought 
Reigns solely in the breast of every man : 
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, 
Following the mirror of all Christian kings, c^ 
With winged heels, as Englis h Mercurie s. C 
For now sits Expectation in the air,--^^ 
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point — 
With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets,T—/j ijlO 
Promis'd to Harry and his followers. 
The French, advis'd by good intelligence 

307. God before = God going before, Deojuvante. W. 

Prologue. This exemplifies one of the great functions of the 
Chorus; it tells us about things instead of showing them to us; 
it is narrative and not dramatic. Shakespeare uses it for mat- 
ters that could not easily be presented in action. 

9. And hides a sword, etc. Swords with crowns thus 
spitted on them may be seen in some old engraved royal por- 
traits. W. 



Prologue] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 45 

Of this most dreadful preparation, 

Shake in their fear and with pale policy |^ "" wi\^ 

Seek to divert the English purposes. 

O England ! model L _to_thy inward greatness A- ^ ~A t^~ VA 

Like little body with a mighty heart, 

What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do, 

Were all thy children kind and natural ! 

But see thy fault ! ( France hath in thee found out 20 

A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills V\ • 

With treacherous crowns ;) and three corrupted men, 

One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second, 

Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third, 

Sir Thomas Gr£y, knifht, #f Northumberland, 

Have, for the gilt of France, — O guilt indeed ! — 

Confirm 'd conspiracy with fearful France ; 

And by their hands this grace of kings must die, 

\ If hell and treason hold their promises,)*-* "P. 
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton. 30 
Linger your patience on ; and we'll digest 
The abuse of distance ; force a play : 
The sum is paid ; the traitors are agreed ; 

' The King is set from London ; and the scene 
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton ; 
There is the playhouse now, there must you sit : 
And thence to France shall we convey you safe, 

16. model to thy inward greatness = proportioned to thy 
inward greatness. W. 

19. kind and natural. The meaning of the two words is 
here much the same. 

20. France = the King of France. So England in II, iv, 75. 
23. Cambridge: cousin to Henry IV. Scroop: third hus- 
band of Joan, widow of Edmund, Duke of York. W. 

32. force a play. Either this phrase is hopelessly corrupt, or 
something before it has been lost. W. 
34. scene — place of action. 



46 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

And bring you back, charming the narrow seas 
To give you gentle pass ; for, if we may, 
We '11 not offend one stomach with our play. 40 

But, till the King come forth, and not till then, 
. i Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. [Exit. 

Scene I. London. A street. 

Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph. 

Bard. Well met, Corporal Nym. 

Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph. 

Bard. What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends 
yet? 

Nym. For my part, I care not : I say little ; but 
when time shall serve, there shall be smiles ; but that 
shall be as it may. I dare not fight ; but I will wink 
and hold out mine iron : it is a simple one ; but what 
though ? it will toast cheese, and it will endure cold 
as another man's sword will : and there 's an end. 10 

Bard. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends ; 
and we '11 be all three sworn brothers to France : let it 
be so, good Corporal Nym. 

Nym. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that 's the 
certain of it : and when I cannot live any longer, I 

42. The first scene was not to be at Southampton. 

Scene I. This is one of the humorous or character scenes 
that the Elizabethan drama sandwiched in amongst the poetry 
and rhetoric. Bardolph and Pistol are reminiscences of Henry 
IV, remnants of the swaggering crew of Falstaff. Nym comes 
from the Merry Wives. They serve Shakespeare's purpose only 
indirectly. For the exhibition of British courage and achieve- 
ment he creates men of a different stamp, Fluellen and Gower, 
Macmorris and Jamy, Williams and Bates. Pistol is the only 
one of the swaggerers who remains through the play: Bardolph 
is hanged for robbing a church, and Nym is, also, though for 
some reason that we do not hear. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 47 

will do as I may : that is my rest, that is the rendez- 
vous of it. 

Bard. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to 
Nell Quickly : and certainly she did you wrong ; for 
you were troth-plight to her. 20 

Nym. I cannot tell : things must be as they may ; 
men may sleep, and they may have their throats about 
them at that time ; and some say knives have edges. It 
must be as it may : though patience be a tired mare, yet 
she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I 
cannot tell. 

Enter Pistol and Hostess. 

Bard. Here come Ancient Pistol and his wife : good 
corporal, be patient here. 

Nym. How now, mine host Pistol ! 

Pist. Base tike, call'st thou me host? 30 

Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term ; 
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. 

Host. No, by my troth, not long ; for we cannot 
lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen that 
live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will 
be thought we keep a bawdy house straight. \_Nym 
draws.] O well a day, Lady, if he be not drawn now ! 
we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed. 

Bard. Good lieutenant ! good corporal ! offer no- 
thing here. 40 

Nym. Pish ! 

Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog ! thou prick-ear'd 
cur of Iceland ! 

16. the rendezvous. Let it be said, once for all, that Nym's 
and Pistol's French, like much of their English, passes human 
understanding, although not human enjoyment. W. 

It would seem, however, from V, i, 84 that they thought ren- 
dezvous meant rest or something of the sort. 

42. prick-ear'd = with pointed ears. 



48 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Host. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and 
put up your sword. 

Nym. Will you shog off ? I would have you solus. 

Pist. " Solus," egregious dog ? O viper vile ! 
The " solus " in thy most mervailous face ; 
The "solus " in thy teeth, and in thy throat, 
And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy, 50 
And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth ! 
I do retort the " solus " in thy bowels ; 
For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, 
And flashing fire will follow. 

Nym. I am not Barbason ; you cannot conjure me. 
I have an humour to knock you indifferently well. If 
you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with 
my rapier, as I may, in fair terms : if you would walk 
off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as 
I may : and that 's the humour of it. 60 

Pist. O braggart vile and damned furious wight ! 
The grave doth gape, and doting death is near ; 
Therefore exhale. [Pistol draws. 

Bard. Hear me, hear me what I say : he that strikes 
the first stroke, I '11 run him up to the hilts, as I am a 
Soldier. [Draws. 

Pist. An oath of mickle might ; and fury shall 
abate. 
Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give : 
Thy spirits are most tall. 

Nyhi. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in 
fair terms : that is the humour of it. 71 

46. shog = jog. W. Cf. II, iii, 45. 
55. Barbason was the name of a devil. 

63. exhale = draw out. W. 

64. Hear . . . say ; note the double object. 

71. the humour of it : a favorite expression with Nym (II, 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 49 

Pish " Covple a gorge ! " 
That is the word. I thee defy again. 

hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get ? 
No ; to the spital go, 

And from the powdering-tub of infamy 
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, 
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse : 

1 have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly 

For the only she ; and — pauca, there 's enough. 80 
Goto. 

Enter the Boy. 

Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my mas- 
ter, and you, hostess : he is very sick, and would to 
bed. Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, 
and do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he 's very 
ill. 

Bard. Away, you rogue ! 

Host. By my troth, he '11 yield the crow a pudding 
one of these days. The King has kill'd his heart. 
Good husband, come home presently. 90 

[Exeunt Hostess and Boy. 

Bard. Come, shall I make you two friends? We 
must to France together : why the devil should we keep 
knives to cut one another's throats ? 

Pist. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl 
on ! 

i, 99, 119; II, iii, 60; III, ii, 5). Humour has many meanings 
in Elizabethan English, as will be seen in The Merry Wives, I, 
iii, where Nym uses it nine times in ten speeches. 

72. Couple a gorge. See IV, iv, 38 and note. 

80. pauca = little, in brief. (Lat.) W. 

84. One of the many jests at Bardolph 's nose. Cf. II, iii, 41. 

89. By not keeping him in favor. Cf. 2 Henry IV, V, v, 
51 ff. 

90. presently = at this present moment, now, at once. W. 



50 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Nym. You '11 pay me the eight shillings I won of 
you at betting? 

Pist. Base is the slave that pays. 

Nym. That now I will have : that 's the humour of it. 

Pist. As manhood shall compound : push home. 

[ They draw. 

Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first 
thrust, I '11 kill him ; by this sword, I will. 102 

Pist. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their 
course. 

Bard. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be 
friends : an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with 
me too. Prithee, put up. 

Nym,. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you 
at betting ? 

Pist. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay ; 
And liquor likewise will I give to thee, 111 

And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood : 
I '11 live by Nym, and »Nym shall live by me ; 
Is not this just? for I shall sutler be 
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. 
Give me thy hand. 

Nym. I shall have my noble ? 

Pist. In cash most justly paid. 

Nym. Well, then, that 's the humour of 't. 119 

Re-enter Hostess. 

Host. As ever you came of women, come in quickly 
to Sir John. Ah, poor heart ! he is so shak'd of a 
burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable 
to behold. Sweet men, come to him. 

Nym. The King hath run bad humours on the 
knight ; that 's the even of it. 

98. Base is the slave, etc.: a quotation from an old play, 
like much of Pistol's bombast. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 51 

Plst. Nym, thou hast spoke the right ; 
His heart is fracted and corroborate. 

Nym. The King is a good king : but it must be as 
it may ; he passes some humours and careers. 

Pist. Let us condole the knight ; for lambkins we 
will live. 131 

Scene II. Southampton. A council-chamber. 
Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmoreland. 
Bed. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these 

traitors. 
Exe. They shall be apprehended by and by. 
West. How smooth and even they do bear them- 
selves ! 
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, 
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. 

Bed. The King hath note of all that they intend, 
By interception which they dream not of. 

Exe. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, 
Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious fa- 
vours, 
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell 10 

His sovereign's life to death and treachery. 

Trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Scroop, Cambridge, Grey, 
and Attendants. 

K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will 
aboard. 
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham, 
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts : 

127. fracted =r broken. So in Timon of Athens, Act II, Sc. i, 
1.22. W. 

2. by and by, at once. 

8. his bedfellow : so Holinshed says : the practice was less 
uncommon of old than now. W. He speaks of Lord Scroop. 



52 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Think you not that the powers we bear with us 
Will cut their passage through the force of France, 
Doing the execution and the act 
For which we have in head assembled them ? 

Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his 

best. 
K. Hen. I doubt not that ; since we are well per- 
suaded 20 
We carry not a heart with us from hence 
That grows not in a fair consent with ours, 
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish 
Success and conquest to attend on us. * ^ 

Cam. [Never was monarch better fear'd ana 1 lov'd 
Than is your majesty ;\there 's not, I think, a sub- 
ject 
That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness . v . 

Under the sweet shade of your government. ' y 

Grey.) True : those that were your father's enemies \* 
Have steep'd their galls in honey, and do serve you 30 h t~\ 
With hearts create of duty and of zeal, I 

K. Hen. We therefore have great cause of thank- 
fulness ; 
And shall forget the office of our hand, 
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit 
(According to the weight and worthiness, j 1 *- 

Scroop. VSo service shall with steeled sinews toil, IL""^ ' 
I And labour shall refresh itself with hope,| "P 
To do your grace incessant services. 

K. Hen. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter, 
Enlarge the man committed yesterday, 40 

That rail'd against our person : we consider 

21. from hence : the from is unnecessary and incorrect. Cf. 
II, ii, 177, 181. 

40. Enlarge = release. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 53 

It was excess of wine that set him on ; 
And on his more advice we pardon him. 

Scroop. That 's mercy, but too much security : 
Let him be punish'd, sovereign, lest example 
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. 

K. Hen. O, let us yet be merciful. 

Cam. So may your highness, and yet punish too. 

Grey. Sir, 
You show great mercy, if you give him life, 50 

After the taste of much correction. 

K. Hen. Alas, your too much love and care of me 
Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch ! 
If little faults, proceeding on distemper, 

Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye ** h * 
When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd and digested, \ J- 
Appear before us ? j We '11 yet enlarge that man, 
Though Cambridge, Scroop and Grey, in their dear 

care 
And tender preservation of our person, 
Would have him punish'd. And now to our French 
causes : 60 

Who are the late commissioners ? 

Cam. I one, my lord : 
Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. 

Scroop. So did you me, my liege. 

Grey. And I, my royal sovereign. 

K. Hen. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there 
is yours ; 
There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham ; and, sir knight, 

43. more advice = second thoughts, reflection. W. 

51. correction: four syllables. W. 

54. distemper = drunkenness, as in Hamlet, III, ii, 314. 

58. dear = extreme. 

61. late = new. W. 



54 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours : 

Read them, and know I know your worthiness. 

My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter, 70 

We will aboard to-night. Why, how now, gentlemen ! 

What see you in those papers that you lose 

So much complexion ? (Look ye, how they change ! f>^ 

Their cheeks are paper.) Why, what read you there, 

That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood 

Out of appearance ? 

Cam. I do confess my fault ; 

And do submit me to your highness' mercy. 

_, r y* [ To which we all appeal. 
bcroop. ) ^ 

K. Hen. \ The mercy that was quick in us but late, J 

By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd : \ 80 

\You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy ; 

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, £> 

As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.j 

See you, my princes and my noble peers, 

These English monsters ! My Lord of Cambridge here, 

You know how apt our love was to accord 

To furnish him with all appertinents 

Belonging to his honour ; and this man 

Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd, 

And sworn unto the practices of France, 90 

To kill us here in Hampton : to the which 

This knight, no less for bounty bound to us 

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O, 

What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop ? thou cruel, 

Ingratef ul, savage and inhuman creature ! \^\1S 

| Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, / / ( I ft 

79. quick = alive. ' 

86. apt = especially inclined. 

90. practices: with a sinister, ill sense. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 55 

That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, 
That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold, 
Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use, 
May it be possible, that foreign hire 100 

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil 
That might annoy my ringer ? 't is so strange, 

VThat, though the truth of it stands off as grostfyN 
As black and white,! my eye will scarcely see it. 

\Treason and murder ever kept together, 
As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose, | 
Working so grossly in a natural cause, 
That admiration did not whoop at them : 
But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in 
Wonder to wait on treason and on murder : 110 

And whatsoever cunning fiend it was 
That wrought upon thee so preposterously 
Hath got the voice in hell for excellence : 
All other devils that suggest by treasons 
Do botch and bungle up damnation 
With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd 
From glistering semblances of piety ; 
But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up, 
Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason, 
Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. 120 

If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus 
Should with his lion gait walk the whole world, 
He might return to vasty Tartar back, 

99. practis'd on : commonly with a bad meaning, as in 1. 90 
above. 

108. admiration = wonder. 

113. got the voice = become the first. , 

119. instance = pressing motive. 

122. his lion gait : " seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter 
v,8. W. 

123. Tartar = Tartarus. 



56 KING HENRY THE FIFTH / [Act II 

And tell the legions \L can never win /\^ 
A soul so easy as that Englishman's^ J 
O, how hast thou with jealousy infected 
The sweetness of affiance ! Show men dutiful ? 
Why, so didst thou: seem they grave and learned? 
Why, so didst thou : come they of noble family? 
Why, so didst thou : seem they religious? 
Why, so didst thou : or are they spare in diet, 
Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger, 
Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, 
Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, 
Not working with the eye without the ear, 
And but in purged judgement trusting neither? 
J Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem : I ** N\ 
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, 
To mark the full-fraught man and best indued 
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee ; 140 

\ For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like O 
Another fall of maiU Their faults are open : 
Arrest them to the answer of the law ; 
And God acquit them of their practices ! 

Exe. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of 
Kichard Earl of Cambridge : 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry 
Lord Scroop of Masham : 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas 
Grey, knight, of Northumberland. 150 

Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd; 
And I repent my fault more than my death ; 
Which I beseech your highness to forgive, 
Although my body pay the price of it. 

134. complement = an outward appearance corresponding to 
their minds. 




Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 57 

Cam. For me, the gold of France did not seduce : 
Although I did admit it as a motive 
The sooner to effect what I intended : " 
But God be thanked for prevention ; 
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, 
Beseeching God and you to pardon me. 160 

Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice 
At the discovery of most dangerous treason . 

Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself, 
Prevented from a damned enterprise : 
My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign. 

K. Hen. God quit you in his mercy ! Hear your 
sentence. 
You have conspir'd against our royal person. 
Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd and from his coffers 
Received the golden earnest of our death ; 
1 Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, f\ L 
His princes and his peers to servitude, I 171 

His subjects to oppression and contempt 
And his whole kingdom into desolation. 
Touching our person seek we no revenge : 
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender, 
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws 
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence, 
^Poor miserable wretches[ to your death : 
The taste whereof, God of his mercy give 
You patience to endure, and true repentance 180 

Of all your dear offences ! Bear them hence. 

[Exeunt Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, guarded. 

Now, lords, for France ; the enterprise whereof 
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious. 
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war, 
Since God so graciously hath brought to light 
169. earnest = a preliminary payment. 



/ 



58 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

\ This dangerous treason lurking in our way \ 
To hinder our beginnings.^ We doubt not now 
But every rub is smoothed on our way. 
Then forth, dear countrymen : let us deliver 
Our puissance into the hand of God, 190 

Putting it straight in expedition. 
Cheerly to sea ; the signs of war advance : 
No king of England, if not king of France. [Exeunt. 

7 

9 Scene III. London. Before a tavern. 

Enter Pistol, Hostess, Ntm, Bardolph, and Boy. 

Host. Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring 
thee to Staines. 

Pist. No ; for my manly heart doth yearn. 
Bardolph, be blithe : Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins : 
Boy, bristle thy courage up ; for Falstaff he is dead, 
And we must yearn therefore. 

Bard. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he 
is, either in heaven or in hell ! 8 

Host. Nay, sure, he 's not in hell : he 's in Arthur's 
bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A' 
made a finer end and went away an it had been any 
christom child ; a' parted even just between twelve 
and one, even at the turning o' th' tide : for after I 
saw him fumble with the sheets and play with flowers 
and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but 
one way ; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' 
babbled of green fields. " How now, Sir John ! " 
quoth I: " what, man ! be o' good cheer." So a' cried 
out " God, God, God ! " three or four times. Now I, 

1. bring = go along with. 

9. Arthur's: a vague recollection of Abraham's. 
16. a' babbled of green fields. This is an emendation ; the 
original reading is " a table of green fields." 



Scene III] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 59 

to comfort him, bid him a' should not think of God ; 
I hop'd there was no need to trouble himself with any 
such thoughts yet. So a' bade me lay more clothes on 
his feet : I put my hand into the bed and felt them, 
and they were as cold as any stone ; then I felt to his 
knees, and they were as cold as any stone, and so 
up'ard and up'ard, and all was as cold as any stone. 

Nym. They say he cried out of sack. 

Host. Ay, that a' did. 

Bard. And of women. 

Host. Nay, that a' did not. 30 

Boy. Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils 
incarnate. 

Host. A' could never abide carnation ; 't was a 
colour he never lik'd. 

Boy. A' said once, the Devil would have him about 
women. 

Host. A' did in some sort, indeed, handle women ; 
but then he was rheumatic, and talk'd of the whore 
of Babylon. 39 

Boy. Do you not remember, a' saw a flea stick 
upon Bardolph's nose, and a' said it was a black 
soul burning in hell-fire? 

Bard. Well, the fuel is gone that maintain'd that 
fire : that 's all the riches I got in his service. 

Nym. Shall we shog? the King will be gone from 
Southampton. 

Pist. Come, let 's away. My love, give me thy 
lips. 
Look to my chattels and my movables : 
Let senses rule ; the word is " Pitch and Pay : " 

38. rheumatic : this word, which is to be accented on the 
first syllable, is the quondam Mrs. Quickly's substitute for 
lunatic. W. 



60 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Trust none ; 50 

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, 

And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck : 

Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor. 

Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms, 

Let us to France ; like horse-leeches, my boys, 

To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck ! 

Boy. And that 's but unwholesome food, they say. 

Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march. 

Bard. Farewell, hostess. [Kissing her. 

JVym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it ; 
but, adieu. 61 

Pist. Let housewifery appear : keep close, I thee 
command. 

Host. Farewell ; adieu. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. France. The King's Palace. 

Flourish. Enter the French King, the Dauphin, the Dukes of Berri 
and Bretagne, the Constable, and others. 

Fr. King. Thus comes the English with full power 
upon us ; 
And more than carefully it us concerns 
To answer royally in our defences. 
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne, 
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth, 
And you, Prince Dolphin, with all swift dispatch, 
To line and new repair our towns of war 
With men of courage and with means defendant ; 
For England his approaches makes as fierce 
As waters to the sucking of a gulf. 10 

53. Caveto = beware. (Lat.) W. 
7. To line = to strengthen. W. 

10. gulf means here something like a maelstrom which sucks 
in waters. Cf. IV, iii, 82. 



Scene IV] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 61 

It fits us then to be as provident 
As fear may teach us out of late examples 
Left by the fatal and neglected English 
Upon our fields. 

Dau. My most redoubted father, 

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe ; 
For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom, 
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question, 
But that defences, musters, preparations, 
Should be maintain 'd, assembled and collected, 
As were a war in expectation. 20 

Therefore, I say 't is meet we all go forth 
To view the sick and feeble parts of France : 
And let us do it with no show of fear ; 
No, with no more than if we heard that England 
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance : 
For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd, 
Her sceptre so fantastically borne 
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, 
That fear attends her not. 

Con. O peace, Prince Dolphin ! 

You are too much mistaken in this king : 30 

Question your grace the late ambassadors, 
With what great state he heard their embassy, 
How well supplied with noble counsellors, 
How modest in exception, and withal 
How terrible in constant resolution, 
And you shall find his vanities forespent 

25. morris-dance: a dance in which the performers were 
dressed in fantastic costumes and assumed fantastic charac- 
ters. W. 

27. fantastically; i. e. as by one ruled by fancy or fantasy 
or, as in the next line, the humour of any moment. 

30. This slight difference of opinion indicates real factions at 
the French court. 



62 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, 

Covering discretion with a coat of folly ; 

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots 

That shall first spring and be most delicate. 40 

Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my Lord High Consta- 
ble; 
But though we think it so, it is no matter : 
In cases of defence 't is best to weigh 
The enemy more mighty than he seems : 
So the proportions of defence are fill'd ; 
Which of a weak and niggardly projection 
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting 
A little cloth. 

Fr. King. Think we King Harry strong ; 
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him. 
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us ; 50 
And he is bred out of that bloody strain. 
That haunted us in our familiar paths : 
Witness our too much memorable shame 
When Cressy battle fatally was struck, 
And all our princes captiv'd by the hand 
Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales; 
Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain stand- 
ing. ^ 
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun, 
Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him, 
Mangle the work of nature and deface 60 

The patterns that by God and by French fathers 
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem 
Of that victorious stock ; and let us fear 
The native mightiness and fate of him. 

50. The kindred of him, etc. = members of his family have 
preyed upon us. W. 
57. Cf. I, ii, 108. 



Scene IV] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 63 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. Ambassadors from Harry King of England 
Do crave admittance to your majesty. 

Fr. King. We '11 give them present audience. Go, 

and bring them. [Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords. 

You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends. 

Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs 
Most spend their mouths when what they seem to 
threaten 70 

Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, 
Take up the English short, and let them know 
Of what a monarchy you are the head : 
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin 
As self-neglecting. 

Be-enter Lords, with Exeter and train. 

Fr. King. From our brother England ? 

Kxe. From him ; and thus he greets your majesty. 
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, 
That you divest yourself, and lay apart 
The borrow'd glories that by gift of heaven, 
By law of nature and of nations, 'long 80 

To him and to his heirs ; namely, the crown 
And all wide-stretched honours that pertain 
By custom and the ordinance of times 
Unto the crown of France. That you may know 
'T is no sinister nor no awkward claim, 
Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days, 
Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd, 
He sends you this most memorable line, 
In every branch truly demonstrative ; 
Willing you overlook this pedigree ; 90 

And when you find him evenly deriv'd 
From his most famed of famous ancestors, 

90. overlook ; not in the modern sense. 



64 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act II 

Edward the Third, he bids you then resign 
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held 
From him the native and true challenger. 

Fr. King. Or else what follows ? 

Exe. Bloody constraint ; for if you hide the crown 
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it : 
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming, 
In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove, 100 

That, if requiring fail, he will compel ; 
And bids you, in the bowels of the Lord, 
Deliver up the crown, and to take mercy 
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war 
Opens his vasty jaws ; and on your head 
Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries, 
The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans, 
For husbands, fathers and betrothed lovers, 
That shall be swallow'd in this controversy. 
This is his claim, his threatening and my message ; 110 
Unless the Dolphin be in presence here, 
To whom expressly I bring greeting too. 

Fr. King. For us, we will consider of this further : 
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent 
Back to our brother England. 

Dau. For the Dolphin, 

I stand here for him : what to him from England ? 

Exe. Scorn and defiance ; slight regard, contempt, 
And any thing that may not misbecome 
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at. 
Thus says my king ; an if your father's highness 120 
Do not, in grant of all demands at large, 
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty, 
He '11 call you to so hot an answer of it, 

102. in the bowels of the Lord: taken right out of Hol- 
inshed. W. 



Scene IV] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 65 

That caves and womby vaultages of France 
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock 
In second accent of his ordinance. 

Dau. Say, if my father render fair return, 
It is against my will ; for I desire 
Nothing but odds with England : to that end, 
As matching to his youth and vanity, 130 

I did present him with the Paris balls. 

Exe. He '11 make your Paris Louvre shake for it, 
Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe : 
And, be assur'd, you '11 find a difference, 
As we his subjects have in wonder found, 
Between the promise of his greener days 
And these he masters now : now he weighs time 
Even to the utmost grain : that you shall read 
In your own losses, if he stay in France. 

Ft. King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at 
full. 140 

Exe. Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king 
Come here himself to question our delay ; 
For he is footed in this land already. 

Ft. King. You shall be soon dispatch'd with fair 
conditions : 
A night is but small breath and little pause 
To answer matters of this consequence. 

[Flourish. Exeunt. 
124. womby =; cavernous. 

126. ordinance = ordnance ; rhythm requires the older tri- 
syllabic form. W. 




66 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

ACT III 

PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chor. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies 
In motion of no less celerity 

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen 
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier 
Embark his royalty ; and his brave fleet 
With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning : 
Play with your fancies, and in them behold 
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing ; 
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give 
To sounds confus'd ; behold the threaden sails, 10 

Borne with the invisible and creeping wind, 
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea, 
Breasting the lofty surge : O, do but think 
You stand upon the rivage and behold 
A city on the inconstant billows dancing ; 
For so appears this fleet majestical, 
Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow : 
Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy, 
And leave your England, as dead midnight still, 

Prologue. This prologue gives us a fine description of what 
could not have been presented on Shakespeare's stage, — the em- 
barkation of the King and his army, and the state of England 
left behind. We have a good example of Elizabethan poetry 
in place of what in a modern play might easily be spectacular 
realism. 

9. whistle of the boatswain. 

14. rivage = bank. (Fr.) W. 

18. sternage : possibly we should read steerage, but more 
probably there is a suggestion of the general notion of following 
the fleet, in thought. W. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 67 

Guarded with grandsires, babies and old women, 20 
Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance ; 
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd 
With one appearing hair, that will not follow 
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France ? 
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege ; 
Behold the ordnance on their carriages, 
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur. 
Suppose the ambassador from the French comes back ; 
Tells Harry that the King doth offer him 
Katharine his daughter, and with her, to dowry, 30 
Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms. 
The offer likes not : and the nimble gunner 
With linstock now the devilish cannon touches, 

[Alarum, and chambers go off. 

And down goes all before them. Still be kind, 

And eke out our performance with your mind. [Exit. 

Scene I. France. Before Harfleur. 

Alarum. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Gloucester, and 
Soldiers, with scaling-ladders. 

K. Hen. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, 
once more ; 
Or close the wall up with our English dead. 
In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility : 
But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 
Then imitate the action of the tiger ; 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage ; 

20. It appears that there were more. 
27. girded by besieging forces. 
33. linstock = port-fire. W. 
35. mind ; i. e. by the imagination. 



68 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 

Let it pry through the portage of the head 10 

Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it 

As fearfully as doth a galled rock 

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 

Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, 

Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit 

To his full height. On, on, you noblest English, 

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof ! 

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, 

Have in these parts from morn till even fought 20 ~*N 

And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument : 

Dishonour not your mothers ; now attest 

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. 

Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 

And teach them how to war. And you, good yeomen, 

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 

The mettle of your pasture ; let us swear 

That you are worth your breeding ; which I doubt not ; 

For there is none of you so mean and base, 

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 30 

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 

Straining upon the start. The game's afoot : 

Follow your spirit, and upon this charge 

Cry " God for Harry, England, and Saint George ! " 

[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off. ^\ 



V- 



9. aspect : accented on the last syllable. W. 

10. portage = carriage. 

11. let . . . it; i. e. frown. 

13. confounded = ruined. 

14. -wasteful — desert. 
18. fet = fetched. O. E. form. W. 
24. copy = example. 
27. mettle. Cf. Ill, v, 15, 29. 



v^ 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 69 

Scene II. The same. 

Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy. 
Bard. On, on, on, on, on ! to the breach, to the 
breach ! 

Nym. Pray thee, corporal, stay : the knocks are too 
hot ; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives : 
the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song 
of it. 

jPist. The plain-song is most just ; for humours do 
abound : 

Knocks go and come ; God's vassals droop and die : 
And sword and shield, 

In bloody field, 10 

Doth win immortal fame. 

Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London ! I 
would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety. 
Fist. And I : 

If wishes would prevail with me, 
My purpose should not fail with me, 
But thither would I hie. 

Boy. As duly, but not as truly, 

As bird doth sing on bough. 19 

Enter Fluellbn. 
Flu. Up to the preach, you dogs ! avaunt, you 

Cllllions ! [Driving them forward. 

4. case = a box, half a dozen, referring to cases in which 
knives, spoons, etc., were kept. W. 

5. plain-song = a simple melody or theme. 

8. Knocks go and come, etc. Pistol's rhymes are quoted 
from some lost ballad or ballads. The Boy's speech, line 18, may 
be so likewise ;.but more probably it is the fruit of his own ready, 
saucy wit. W. 

20. preach. Fluellen's dialect is worth study. It will be 
observed that it consists almost entirely in substituting voiceless 
consonants for voiced at the beginning of a word, as p for b, as 
here, /for v, etc. 

21. cullions = boobies, gulls. W. 



70 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Pist. Be merciful, great Duke, to men of mould. 
Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage, 
Abate thy rage, great Duke ! 

Good bawcock, bate thy rage ; use lenity, sweet 
chuck ! , 25 

Nym. These be good humours ! your honour wins 
bad humours. [Exeunt all but Boy. 

Boy. As young as I am, I have observ'd these 
three swashers. I am boy to them all three : but all 
they three, though they would serve me, could not be 
man to me ; for indeed three such antics do not amount 
to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd and red- 
fac'd; by the means whereof a' faces it out, but 
fights not. For Pistol, he hath a killing tongue and a 
quiet sword ; by the means whereof a' breaks words, 
and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath heard 
that men of few words are the best men ; and there- 
fore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a' should be 
thought a coward : but his few bad words are match'd 
with as few good deeds ; for a' never broke any man's 
head but his own, and that was against a post when 
he was drunk. They will steal any thing, and call it 
purchase. Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve 
leagues, and sold it for three half-pence. Nym and 
Bardolph are sworn brothers in filching, and in Calais 
they stole a fire-shovel : I knew by that piece of service 
the men would carry coals. They would have me as 
familiar with men's pockets as their gloves or their 
handkerchers : which makes much against my man- 
hood, if I should take from another's pocket to put 
into mine ; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I 

22. mould = earth : to ordinary men. 
25. bawcock = beau cocq, IV, i, 44. 
47. carry coals = perform the meanest services. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 71 

must leave them, and seek some better service : their 

villany goes against my weak stomach, and therefore 

I must cast it up. [Exit. 

Re-enter Fluellen, Gower following. 

Gow. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently 
to the mines ; the Duke of Gloucester would speak 
with you. 57 

Flu. To the mines ! tell you the Duke, it is not so 
good to come to the mines ; for, look you, the mines 
is not according to the disciplines of the war : the con- 
cavities of it is not sufficient ; for, look you, th' ath- 
versary, you may discuss unto the Duke, look you, is 
digt himself four yard unter the countermines : by 
Cheshu, I think a' will plow up all, if there is not 
petter directions. 

Gow. The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order 
of the siege is given, is altogether directed by an Irish- 
man, a very valiant gentleman, i' faith. 

Flu. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not ? 

Gow. I think it be. 70 

Flu. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the worlt : I 
will ferify as much in his peard : he has no more di- 
rections in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, 
of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog. 
Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy. 

Gow. Here a' comes ; and the Scots captain, Cap- 
tain Jamy, with him. 

52. leave them : he did stay with what was left of them till 
after Agincourt. v 

55. presently = at once. 

56. mines : the means of approaching and sometimes destroy- 
ing the enemies' fortification. 

74. Fluellen, though a thoroughly brave man, was a little 
pedantic. See just below, 11. 79, 82, 97. 



72 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Flu. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gen- 
tleman, that is certain ; and of great expedition and 
knowledge in th' auncliient wars, upon my particular 
knowledge of his directions : by Cheshu, he will main- 
tain his argument as well as any military man in the 
worlt, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the 
Romans. 83 

Jamy. I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen. 

Flu. God-den to your worship, good Captain James. 

Gow. How now, Captain Macmorris ! have you 
quit the mines ? have the pioners given o'er ? 

Mac. By Chrish, la ! tish ill done : the work ish 
give over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, 
I swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done; it 
ish give over : I would have blowed up the town, so 
Chrish save me, la ! in an hour : O, tish ill done, tish 
ill done ; by my hand, tish ill done ! 93 

Flu. Captain Macmorris, I peseech you now, will 
you voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with 
you, as partly touching or concerning the disciplines 
of the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument, 
look you, and friently communication ; partly to sat- 
isfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, look 
you, of my mind, as touching the direction of the mili- 
tary discipline ; that is the point. 101 

Jamy. It sail be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains 
baith : and I sail quit you with gud leve, as I may 
pick occasion ; that sail I, marry. 

Mac. It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me : 
the day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the 

88. Macmorris's dialect is only slightly indicated by substi- 
tuting sh for s. Jamy, on the other hand, does just the opposite, 
as do Sir Walter Scott's Highlanders. He has also one or two 
other northern peculiarities, as baith for both. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 73 

King, and the dukes : it is no time to discourse. The 
town is beseech'd, and the trumpet call us to the 
breach ; and we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing : 't is 
shame for us all : so God sa' me, 't is shame to stand 
still ; it is shame, by my hand : and there is throats 
to be cut, and works to be done; and there ish no- 
thing done, so Chrish sa' me, la! 113 

Jamy. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take 
themselves to slomber, ay '11 de gud service, or ay '11 
lig i' th' grund for it ; ay, or go to death ; and ay '11 
pay't as valorously as I may, that sail I suerly do, 
that is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full fain 
heard some question 'tween you tway. 119 

Flu. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under 
your correction, there is not many of your nation — 

Mac. Of my nation ! What ish my nation ? What 
ish my nation ? Who talks of my nation ish a villain, 
and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal. 

Flu. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise 
than is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I 
shall think you do not use me with that affability as 
in discretion you ought to use me, look you ; being as 
goot a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of war, 
and in the terivation of my pirth, and in other particu- 
larities. 131 

Mac. I do not know you so good a man as myself % 
so Chrish save me, I will cut off your head. 

Goto. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each 
other. 

Jamy. A ! that 's a foul fault. [^1 parley sounded. 

122. What . . . nation ? Macmorris means that there is no 
question of different nations in the army. 

135. A. This vowel is the Scotch exclamation aw ! It had that 
pronunciation very commonly in S.'s day. W. 



74 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Gow. The town sounds a parley. 

Flu. Captain Macmorris, when there is more better 
opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so bold 
as to tell you I know the disciplines of war ; and 
there is an end. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. The same. Before the gates. 

The Governor and some Citizens on the walls; the English forces below. 
Enter King Henry and his train. 

K. Hen. How yet resolves the governor of the 
town? 
This is the latest parle we will admit : 
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves ; 
Or like to men proud of destruction 
Defy us to our worst : for, as I am a soldier, 
A name that in my thoughts becomes me best, 
If I begin the battery once again, 
I will not leave the half-achiev'd Harfleur 
Till in her ashes she lie buried. 

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, 10 

And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart, 
In liberty of bloody hand shall range 
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass 
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants. 
What is it then to me, if impious war, 
Array'd in flames like to the prince of fiends, 
Do, with his smirch' d complexion, all fell feats 
Enlink'd to waste and desolation ? 
What is 't to me, when you j^ourselves are cause, 

2. parle = parley, as in Hamlet, I, i, 62. 

7. battery = bombardment. 

11. flesh'd : who has tasted blood, and whose animal passions 
are roused. W. If a town were taken by storm, the soldiers 
had full liberty afterwards to do as they pleased. 



Scene III] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 75 

If your pure maidens fall into the hand 20 

Of hot and forcing violation? 

What rein can hold licentious wickedness 

When down the hill he holds his fierce career? 

We may as bootless spend our vain command 

Upon th' enraged soldiers in their spoil 

As send precepts to the leviathan 

To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur, 

Take pity of your town and of your people, 

Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command ; 

Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace 30 

O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds 

Of heady murther, spoil and villany. 

If not, why, in a moment look to see 

The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand 

Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters ; 

Your fathers taken by the silver beards, 

And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls, 

Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, 

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd 

Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry 40 

At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. 

What say you ? will you yield, and this avoid, 

Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd ? 

Gov. Our expectation hath this day an end. 
The Dolphin, whom of succours we entreated, 
Returns us that his powers are yet not ready 
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great King, 
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy. 
Enter our gates ; dispose of us and ours ; 
For we no longer are defensible. 50 

26. precepts = orders, a law term: accented on second sylla- 
ble. W. To draw the leviathan with mere precepts was more 
absurd than to draw him with a hook as in Job xli, 1. 



76 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

K. Hen. Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter, 
Go you and enter Harfleur ; there remain, 
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French : 
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle, 
The winter coming on and sickness growing 
Upon our soldiers, we will retire to Calais. 
To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest ; 
To-morrow for the march are we addrest. 

[Flourish. The King and his train enter the town. 

Scene IV. The French King's palace. 
Enter Katharine and Alice. 

Kath. Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu paries 
bien le langage. 

Alice. Un peu, madame. 

Kath. Je te prie, m'enseignez ; il faut que j'ap- 
prenne a parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en 
Anglois ? 

Alice. La main ? elle est appele*e de hand. 

Kath. De hand. Et les doigts ? 

Alice. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais 
je me souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont 
appeles de fingres ; oui, de fingres. 11 

56. retire : a map will show the course of this retreat. 

Scene IV. It is of course impossible to present here a transla- 
tion of this amusing scene. The princess is represented as pre- 
paring herself for the conquest of Henry, and she engages her 
waiting gentlewoman to teach her English. Prefiguring Ollen- 
dorff S. has her taught to say hand, fingers, nails, arm, elbow, 
neck, and chin, which Alice tells her she pronounces as well as 
an Englishwoman born. She then finds out that the English for 
pied is foot, and for robe gown, or, as Alice pronounces it, court; 
with a misapprehension of which words the lesson ends. The 
scene is printed in the folio with a notable approach to correct- 
ness; and I suspect that S. was assisted in its composition and else- 
where in this play by a better French scholar than himself. W. 



Scene IV] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 77 

Kaih. La main, de hand ; les doigts, de fingres. 
Je pense que je suis le bon 6colier ; j'ai gagne deux 
mots d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les 
ongles ? 

Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails. 

Kath. De nails. Ecoutez ; dites-moi, si je parle 
bien : de hand, de fingres, et de nails. 

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame ; il est fort bon 
Anglois. 20 

Kath. Dites-moi l'Anglois pour le bras. 

Alice. De arm, madame. 

Kath. Et le coude ? 

Alice. De elbow. 

Kath. De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous 
les mots que vous m'avez appris des a present. 

Alice. II est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. 

Kath. Excusez-moi, Alice ; ecoutez : de hand, de 
fingres, de nails, de arma, de bilbow. 

Alice. De elbow, madame. 30 

Kath. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie ! de elbow. 
Comment appelez-vous le col? 

Alice. De neck, madame. 

Kath. De nick. Et le menton? 

Alice. De chin. 

Kath. De sin. Le col, de nick ; le menton, de sin. 

Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous 
prononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'An- 
gleterre. 

Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace 
de Dieu, et en peu de temps. 41 

Alice. N'avez vous pas de'ja oublie ce que je vous 
ai enseigne? 

Kath. Non, je reciterai a vous promptement : de 
hand, de fingres, de mails, — 



78 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Alice. De nails, madame. 

Kaih. De nails, de arm, de ilbow. 

Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow. 

Kaih. Ainsi dis-je ; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. 
Comment appelez-vous le pied et la robe ? 50 

Alice. De foot, madame ; et de coun. 

Kaih. De foot et de coun ! O Seigneur Dieu ! ce 
sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impu- 
dique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user : je ne 
voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de 
France pour tout le monde. Foh ! le foot et le coun ! 
Neanmoins, je reciterai une autre fois ma lecon en- 
semble : de hand, de nngres, de nails, de arm, de 
elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, de coun. 

Alice. Excellent, madame ! 60 

Kaih. C'est assez pour une fois : allons-nous a 

diner. [Exeunt. 

Scene V. The same. 

Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, the Duke of Bourbon, the 
Constable of France, and others. 

Fr. King. 'T is certain he hath pass'd the river 
Somme. 

Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord, 
Let us not live in France ; let us quit all 
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people. 

Dau. O Dieu vivant 1 shall a few sprays of us, 
The emptying of our fathers' luxury, 
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock, 
Spurt up so suddenly into the clouds, 
And overlook their grafters? 

4. a barbarous people. Even in S.'s day the French, the 
Italians, and the Spaniards regarded the English as semi-barba- 
rians. W. 



Scene V] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 79 

Boar. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman 
bastards ! 10 

Mort de ma vie ! if they march along 
Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom, 
To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm 
In that nook-shotten isle of Albion. 

Con. Dieu de batailles ! where have they this 
mettle? 
Is not their climate foggy, raw and dull, 
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale, 
Killing their fruit with frowns ? Can sodden water, 
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth, 
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat? 20 

And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine, 
Seem frosty ? O, for honour of ouir land, 
Let us not hang like roping icicles 
Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people 
Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields ! 
Poor we may call them in their native lords. 

Dau. By faith and honour, 
Our madams mock at us, and plainly say 
Our mettle is bred out and they will give 
Their bodies to the lust of English youth 30 

To new-store France with bastard warriors. 

Boar. They bid us to the English dancing-schools, 
And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos ; 
Saying our grace is only in our heels, 
And that we are most lofty runaways. 

14. nook-shotten : strangely means either cut up into nooks 
and corners, or set off in a corner by itself ; and strangely either 
meaning is here applicable. W. 

19. sur-rein'd = over-ridden. W. 

33. lavoltas . . . corantos = two very lively Italian dances. 
W. 



80 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Fr. King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed 
him hence : 
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. 
Up, princes ! and, with spirit of honour edg'd 
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field : 
Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France ; 40 

You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri, 
Alencon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy ; 
Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont, 
Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg, 
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois ; 
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights, 
For your great seats now quit you of great shames. 
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land 
With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur : 
Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow 50 

Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat 
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon : 
Go down upon him, you have power enough, 
And in a captive chariot into Rouen 
Bring him our prisoner. 

Con. This becomes the great. 

Sorry am I his numbers are so few, 
His soldiers sick and famish'd in their march, 
For I am sure, when he shall see our army, 
He '11 drop his heart into the sink of fear 
And for achievement offer us his ransom. 60 

40. Charles Delabreth. So Holinshed. The, name is D'Al- 
bret. S. took the names as he found them in Holinshed, and it 
is well for us to be content with them. W. The enumeration 
of the killed and prisoners at Agincourt, IV, viii, 69-95, accounts 
for almost all these gentlemen. 

47. For . . . shames. The greater their possessions the 
greater the shame in allowing the English in the land. 



Scene VI] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 81 

Fr. King. Therefore, Lord Constable, haste on 
Montjoy, 
And let him say to England that we send 
To know what willing ransom he will give. 
Prince Dolphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen. 

Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty. 

Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain with us. 
Now forth, Lord Constable and princes all, 
And quickly bring us word of England's fall. [Exeunt. 

Scene VI. The English camp in Picardy. 
Enter Gower and Fluellen, meeting. 

Gow. How now, Captain Fluellen ! come you from 
the bridge ? 

Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent services 
committed at the pridge. 

Gow. Is the Duke of Exeter safe ? 

Flu. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as 
Agamemnon ; and a man that I love and honour with 
my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and 
my living, and my uttermost power : he is not — Got 
pe praised and blessed ! — any hurt in the world ; but 
keeps the pridge most faliantly, with excellent disci- 
pline. There is an aunchient lieutenant there at the 
pridge, I think in my very conscience he is as faliant a 
man as Mark Antony ; and he is a man of no estimation 
in the world; but I did see him do as gallant service. 

2. the bridge : an historical incident. The bridge was over the 
Ternois, on the road to Calais. The French attempted to break 
it down, but Henry seized, held, and crossed it. W. 

6. magnanimous — high-spirited. 

7. Agamemnon : notice Fluellen's classical comparisons, 
Agamemnon and Antony in this scene, Alexander in IV, vii. 

15. service : just what kind of service we may judge from 
IV, iv. Fluelle.n learns to judge more accurately later. Cf. V, i. 



82 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Gow. What do you call him ? 

Flu. He is called Aunchient Pistol. 

Gow. I know him not. 

Enter Pistol. 

Flu. Here is the man. 19 

Fist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours : 
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. 

Flu. Ay, I praise Got ; and I have merited some 
love at his hands. 

Fist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, 
And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate, 
And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, 
That goddess blind, 
That stands upon the rolling restless stone — 28 

Flu. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. For- 
tune is painted plind, with a muffler afore her eyes, 
to signify to you that Fortune is plind ; and she is 
painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which is 
the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, 
and mutability, and fariation ; and her foot, look 
you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and 
rolls, and rolls : in good truth, the poet makes a most 
excellent description of it: Fortune is an excellent 
moral. 

Fist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on 
him ; 
For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a' be : 40 
A damned death ! 

Let gallows gape for dogs ; let man go free 
And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate : 

33. moral = moral lesson. Cf. IV, i, 12. 

40. stolen a pax : an historical incident. It was, however, a 
pix, a vessel for the consecrated wafer, tbat was stolen. Henry 
hanged the thief out of hand. W. 



Scene VI] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 83 

But Exeter hath given the doom of death 

For pax of little price. 

Therefore, go speak : the Duke will hear thj 7 voice ; 

And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut 

With edge of penny cord and vile reproach : 

Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite. 

Flu. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand your 
meaning. 51 

Pist. Why then, rejoice therefore. 

Flu. Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to re- 
joice at : for if, look you, he were my brother, I would 
desire the Duke to use his good pleasure, and put him 
to execution ; for discipline ought to be us'd. 

Pist. Die and be damn'd ! and^o for thy friend- 
ship ! 

Flu. It is well. 

Pist. The fig of Spain. [Exit. 

Flu. Fery good. 60 

Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal ; I 
remember him now ; a bawd, a cutpurse. 

Flu. I '11 assure you, a' utt'red as prave words at 
the pridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it 
is fery well ; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I 
warrant you, when time is serve. 

Gow. Why, 't is a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now 
and then goes to the wars, to grace himself at his re- 
turn into London under the form of a soldier. And 
such fellows are perfect in the great commanders' 
names ; and they will learn you by rote where ser- 
vices were done ; at such and such a sconce, at such 
a breach, at such a convoy ; who came off bravely, 
who was shot, who disgrac'd, what terms the enemy 

57. figo = a fig. W. 

72. sconce : a slight fortification. 



84 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

stood on ; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of 
war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths : and 
what a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of 
the camp will do among foaming bottles and ale-wash'd 
wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But you must 
learn to know such slanders of the age, or else you 
may be marvellously mistook. 81 

Flu. I tell you what, Captain Gower ; I do per- 
ceive he is not the man that he would gladly make 
show to the world he is : if I find a hole in his coat, 
I will tell him my mind. [Drum heard.~\ Hark you, 
the King is coming, and I must speak with him from 
the pridge. 

Drum and colours. Enter King Henry, Gloucester, and Soldiers. 
God pless your majesty ! 

K. Hen. How now, Fluellen! cam'st thou from 
the bridge ? 90 

Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of 
Exeter has very gallantly maintained the pridge : the 
French is gone off, look you ; and there is gallant and 
most prave passages ; marry, th' athversary was have 
possession of the pridge ; but he is enforced to retire, 
and the Duke of Exeter is master of the pridge : I can 
tell your majesty, the Duke is a prave man. 

K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen ? 98 

Flu. The perdition of th' athversary hath been 
very great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I 
think the Duke hath lost never a man, but one that is 
like to be executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, 
if your majesty know the man : his face is all bubukles, 
and whelks, and knobs, and flames o' fire : and his 

84. if . . . coat : if I can find fault with him. 

94. -was have = had. 

99. perdition: Fluellen's pedantry. 



• 



Scene VI] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 85 

lips blows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, 
sometimes plue and sometimes red ; but his nose is 
executed, and his fire 's out. 107 

K. Hen. We would have all such offenders so cut 
off : and we give exj)ress charge, that in our marches 
through the country, there be nothing compelPd from 
the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the 
French upbraided or abused in disdainful language ; 
for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the 
gentler gamester is the soonest winner. 
Tucket. Enter Montjoy. 

Mont. You know me by my habit. 

K. Hen. Well then I know thee : what shall I 
know of thee ? 

Mont. My master's mind. 

K. Hen. Unfold it. 119 

Mont. Thus says my King : Say thou to Harry of 
England : Though we seem'd dead, we did but sleep : 
advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him 
we could have rebuk'd him at Harfleur, but that we 
thought not good to bruise an injury till it were full 
ripe: now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is 
imperial : England shall repent his folly, see his weak- 
ness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him therefore 
consider of his ransom ; which must proportion the 
losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the 
disgrace we have digested; which in weight to re- 
answer, his pettiness would bow under. For our losses, 
his exchequer is too poor ; for the effusion of our 
blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number ; 
and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our 

115. habit: the herald's tabard was blazoned with his special 
insignia. 

126. England = the King of England. Cf. II, Prol. 20. 



^ 



86 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this 
add defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath 
betrayed his followers, whose condemnation is pro- 
nounc'd. So far my King and master ; so much my 
office. 139 

K. Hen. What is thy name ? I know thy quality. 

Mont. Montjoy. 

K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee 
back, 
And tell thy King I do not seek him now ; 
But could be willing to march on to Calais 
Without impeachment : for, to say the sooth, 
Though 't is no wisdom to confess so much 
Unto an enemy of craft and vantage, 
My people are with sickness much enfeebled, 
j My numbers lessen'd, and those few I have 
. • Almost no better than so many French ; 150 

Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, 
I thought upon one pair of English legs 
Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, 
That I do brag thus ! This your air of France 
Hath blown that vice in me ; I must repent. 
Go therefore, tell thy master here I am ; 
My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk, 
My army but a weak and sickly guard ; 
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, 159 

Though France himself and such another neighbour 
Stand in our way. There 's for thy labour, Mont- 
joy- 

139. office = special duty, as in 1. 142. 

140. quality = profession. Henry knew him to be the French 
herald from his tabard. 

159. God before = God leading and aiding. Henry was 
always yery devout and God-glorifying. W. 



Scene VII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 87 

Go, bid thy master well advise himself : 

If we may pass, we will ; if we be hinder'd, > / 

We shall your tawny ground with your red blood -^\ 

Discolour : and so, Montjoy, fare you well. 

The sum of all our answer is but this : 

We would not seek a battle, as we are ; 

Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it : 

So tell your master. 169 

Mont. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your high- 
ness. [Exit. 

Glou. I hope they will not come upon us now. 

K. Hen. We are in God's hand, brother, not in 
theirs. 
March to the bridge ; it now draws toward night : y 

Beyond the river we '11 encamp ourselves, , 

And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exeunt, jij 

Scene VII. The French camp, near Agincourt. 

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, Orleans, 
Dauphin, with others. 

Con. Tut ! I have the best armour of the world. 
Would it were day ! 

Orl. You have an excellent armour; but let my 
horse have his due. 

Con. It is the best horse of Europe. 

Orl. Will it never be morning ? 

164. your tawny ground, etc. : taken right out of Holinshed: 
" and yet I wish not anie of you so unadvised, as to be the occa- 
sion that I die your tawnie ground with your red bloud ; " and 
Holinshed took it from the preceding chronicler, Hall. W. 

Scene VII. This scene gives us excellently the difference 
between talking and doing. The French in their talk of their 
armor and horses are most effective, especially the Dauphin; 
his only match in the English army is Pistol. 



88 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Dau. My Lord of Orleans, and my Lord High 
Constable, you talk of horse and armour? 

Orl. You are as well provided of both as any prince 
in the world. 10 

Dau. What a long night is this ! I will not change 
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. 
Ca, ha/ he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails 
were hairs ; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les 
narines de feu ! When I bestride him, I soar, I am 
a hawk : he trots the air ; the earth sings when he 
touches it ; the basest horn of his hoof is more musi- 
cal than the pipe of Hermes. 

Orl. He 's of the colour of the nutmeg. 19 

Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast 
for Perseus : he is pure air and fire ; and the dull 
elements of earth and water never appear in him, but 
only in patient stillness while his rider mounts him : 
he is indeed a horse ; and all other jades you may call 
beasts. 

Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and 
excellent horse. 

Dau. It is the prince of palfreys ; his neigh is like 
the bidding of a monarch and his countenance en- 
forces homage. 30 

Orl. No more, cousin. 

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from 
the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary 
deserved praise on my palfrey : it is a theme as fluent 

13. entrails were hairs. Tennis balls were stuffed with 
hair, le cheval volant = the flying horse, chez les narines 
de feu = with fire-breathing nostrils. W. 

21. Perseus : son of Danae by Jupiter. He had winged san- 
dals, and in the literature just preceding S.'s day, his ship was 
called his flying horse. W. 

26. absolute = perfect, unexceptionable. W. 



Scene VII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 89 

as the sea : turn the sands into eloquent tongues, and 
my horse is argument for them all : 't is a subject for 
a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's sover- 
eign to ride on ; and for the world, familiar to us and 
unknown, to lay apart their particular functions and 
wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet in his praise and 
began thus : " Wonder of nature," — 41 

Orl. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mis- 
tress. 

Dau, Then did they imitate that which I com- 
pos'd to my courser, for my horse is my mistress. 

Orl. Your mistress bears well. 

Dau. Me well ; which is the prescript praise and 
perfection of a good and particular mistress. 

Con. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress 
shrewdly shook your back. 50 

Dau. So perhaps did yours. 

Con. Mine was not bridled. 

Dau. O then belike she was old and gentle ; and 
you rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, 
and in your straight strossers. 

Con. You have good judgement in horseman- 
ship. 

Dau. Be warn'd by me, then : they that ride so 
and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather 
have my horse to my mistress. 60 

Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jade. 

Dau. I tell thee, Constable, my mistress wears his 
own hair. 

54. kern = an Irish foot-soldier, strait strossers = tight 
trousers. W. 

62. wears his own hair. One of the very few personal feel- 
ings on the part of S. which appear in his plays was a great dis- 
like of the fashion of wearing false hair and dyeing the hair, 
which was common among women in his day. W. 



90 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had 
a sow to my mistress. 

Dau. " Le chien est retourne a son propre vomisse- 
ment, et la truie lavee au bourbier: " thou mak'st use 
of any thing. 

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress, 
or any such proverb so little kin to the purpose. 70 

Rani. My Lord Constable, the armour that I saw 
in your tent to-night, are those stars or suns upon it? 

Con. Stars, my lord. 

Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. 

Con. And yet my sky shall not want. 

Dau. That may be, for you bear a many superflu- 
ously, and 't were more honour some were away. 

Con. Even as your horse bears your praises ; who 
would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted. 

Dau. Would I were able to load him with his desert ! 
Will it never be day ? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and 
my way shall be paved with English faces. 82 

Con. I will not say so, for fear I should be fac'd 
out of my way : but I would it were morning ; for I 
would fain be about the ears of the English. 

Ham. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty 
prisoners ? 

Con. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you 
have them. 

Dau. 'T is midnight ; I '11 go arm myself. [Exit. 

Orl. The Dolphin longs for morning. 91 

Ram. He longs to eat the English. 

Con. I think he will eat all he kills. 

66. Le chien est retourne", etc. =s the dog is returned to his 
vomit, etc. W. 

93. I , . . kills : a common quip. Cf. Much Ado, I, i, 36, 
" for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing." 



Scene VII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 91 

Orl. By the white hand of my lady, he 's a gallant 
prince. 

Con. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out 
the oath. 

Orl. He is simply the most active gentleman of 
France. 

Con. Doing is activity ; and he will still be doing. 

Orl. He never did harm, that I heard of. 101 

Con. Nor will do none to-morrow : he will keep 
that good name still. 

OrL I know him to be valiant. 

Con. I was told that by one that knows him better 
than you. 

Orl. What's he? 

Con. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said 
he car'd not who knew it. 

Orl. He needs not ; it is no hidden virtue in him. 

Con. By my faith, sir, but it is ; never any body 
saw it but his lackey ; 't is a hooded valour ; and when 
it appears, it will bate. 113 

Orl. Ill will never said well. 

Con. I will cap that proverb with " There is flat- 
tery in friendship." 

Orl. And I will take up that with " Give the Devil 
his due." 

Con. Well plac'd; there stands your friend for 
the Devil : have at the very eye of that proverb with 
" A pox of the Devil." 121 

Orl. You are the better at proverbs, by how much 
" A fool's bolt is soon shot." 

Con. You have shot over. 

Orl. 'T is not the first time you were overshot. 

112. hooded . . . bate : terms of falconry of obvious mean- 
ing. W. 



92 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act III 

Enter a Messenger. 

Mess. My Lord High Constable, the English lie 
within fifteen hundred paces of your tents. 

Con. Who hath measur'd the ground ? 

Mess. The Lord Grandpre. 

Con. A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would 
it were day ! Alas, poor Harry of England ! he longs 
not for the dawning as we do. 132 

Orl. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this 
King of England, to mope with his fat-brain'd follow- 
ers so far out of his knowledge ! 

Con. If the English had any apprehension, they 
would run away. 

Orl. That they lack; for if their heads had any 
intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy 
head-pieces. 140 

Ham. That island of England breeds very valiant 
creatures ; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. 

Orl. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth 
of a Russian bear and have their heads crush'd like 
rotten apples ! You may as well say, that 's a valiant 
flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. 

Con. Just, just ; and the men do sympathize with 
the mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leav- 
ing their wits with their wives : and then give them 
great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat 
like wolves and fight like devils. 151 

Orl, Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of 
beef. 

Con. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only 
stomachs to eat and ndne to fight. Now is it time to 
arm : come, shall we about it ? 

143. Shakespeare's audiences were quite familiar with bear- 
baiting. 




Prologue] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 93 

Orl. It is now two o'clock : but, let me see, by ten 
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. [Exeunt. 



ACT IV 

PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chor. Now entertain conjecture of a time 
When creeping murmur and the poring dark 
Fills the wide vessel of the universe. 
From camp to camp through the foul womb of night 
The hum of either army stilly sounds, 
That the fix'd sentinels almost receive 
The secret whispers of each other's watch : 
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames 
Each battle sees the other's umber'd face ; 
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs 10 
Piercing the night's dull ear, and from the tents 
The armourers, accomplishing the knights, 
With busy hammers closing rivets up, 
Give dreadful note of preparation : 
The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, 
And the third hour of drowsy morning name. 
Proud of their numbers and secure in soul, 
The confident and over-lusty French 
Do the low-rated English play at dice ; 
And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night 20 

Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp 

Prologue. Here again we have description, rhetoric, poetry, 
to make up for the lack of scenic realism. 

9. battle = an army drawn up for battle as in IV, iii, 2, 69, 
and often in earlier use. Cf. embattled, IV, ii, 14. 

12. accomplishing = giving them all they needed. 

19. low-rated, i. e. by the French. 



94 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

So tediously away. The poor condemned English, 

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires 

Sit patiently and inly ruminate 

The morning's danger, and their gesture sad 

Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats 

Presenteth them unto the gazing moon 

So many horrid ghosts. O now, who will behold 

The royal captain of this ruin'd band 

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, 30 

Let him cry, Praise and glory on his head ! 

For forth he goes and visits all his host, 

Bids them good morrow with a modest smile 

And calls them brothers, friends and countrymen. 

Upon his royal face there is no note 

How dread an army hath enrounded him ; 

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour 

Unto the weary and all-watched night, 

But freshly looks and over-bears attaint 

With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty ; 40 

That every wretch, pining and pale before, 

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks : 

A largess universal like the sun 

His liberal eye doth give to every one, 

Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all, 

Behold, as may un worthiness define, 

A little touch of Harry in the night. 

And so our scene must to the battle fly ; 

Where — O for pity ! — we shall much disgrace 

With four or five most vile and ragged foils, 50 

Right ill-disposed in brawl ridiculous, 

The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see, 

Minding true things by what their mockeries be. 

[Exit 
25. gesture = bearing. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 95 

Scene I. The English cam}) at Agincourt. 
Enter King Henry, Bedford, and Gloucester. 

K. Hen. Glou'ster, 't is true that we are in great 

danger ; £^ 

The greater therefore should our courage be. 
Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty ! 
There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out. 
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, 
Which is both healthful and good husbandry : 
Besides, they are our outward consciences, 
And preachers to us all, admonishing 
That we should dress us fairly for our end. ' 10 

Thus may we gather honey from the weed, 
And make a moral of the Devil himself. 

Enter Erpingham. 
Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham : 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than a churlish turf of France. 

Erp. Not so, my liege : this lodging likes me better, 
Since I may say, Now lie I like a king. 

K. Hen. 'T is good for men to love their present 
pains 
Upon example ; so the spirit is eas'd : 
And when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt, 20 
The organs, though defunct and dead before, 
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move, 
With casted slough and fresh legerity. 

7. good husbandry = thrift. W. 
10. dress us = order ourselves. 
12. moral, so Fluellen, III, vi, 33. 
19. spirit: one syllable; pronounced spreet. W. 
23. legerity = lightness; one of the common Gallicisms in 
S.'sday. W. 



N 



96 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both, 
Commend me to the princes in our camp ; 
Do my good morrow to them, and anon 
Desire them all to my pavilion. 

Glou. We shall, my liege. 

Erp. Shall I attend your grace ? 

K. Hen. No, my good knight ; 

Go with my brothers to my lords of England : 30 \ 

I and my bosom must debate a while, ^s 

And then I would no other company. O* 

Erp. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry ! 

[Exeunt all but Kingr 

K. Hen. God-a-mercy, old heart ! thou speak'st 
cheerfully. 

Enter Pistol. 

Pist. Qui va la ? 

K. Hen. A friend. 

Pist. Discuss unto me ; art thou officer ? 
Or art thou base, common and popular ? 

K. Hen. I am a gentleman of a company. 

Pist. Trail' st thou the puissant pike ? 40 

K. Hen. Even so. What are you ? 

Pist. As good a gentleman as the Emperor. 

K. Hen. Then you are a better than the King. 

Pist. The King 's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, 
A lad of life, an imp of fame ; 
Of parents good, of fist most valiant. 
I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string 
I love the lovely bully. What is thy name ? 

K. Hen. Harry le Roy. 

Pist. Le Roy ! a Cornish name : art thou of Corn- 
ish crew ? 50 

K. Hen. No, I am a Welshman. 

38. popular = of the people. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 97 

Pist. Know'st thou Fluellen ? 

K. Hen. Yes. 

Pist. Tell him, I '11 knock his leek about his pate 
Upon Saint Davy's day. 

K. Hen. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap 
that day, lest he knock that about yours. 

Pist. Art thou his friend ? 

K. Hen. And his kinsman too. 

Pist. The figo for thee, then ! 60 

K. Hen. I thank you : God be with you 

Pist. My name is Pistol call'd. [Exit. 

K. Hen. It sorts well with your fierceness. 
Enter Fluellen and Gower. 

Gow. Captain Fluellen ! 

Flu. So ! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. 
It is the greatest admiration in the universal world, 
when the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of 
the wars is not kept : if you would take the pains but 
to examine the wars of Pompey the Great, yon shall 
find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle nor 
pibble pabble in Pompey's camp ; I warrant you, you 
shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of 
it, and the forms of it, and the sopriety of it, and the 
modesty of it, to be otherwise. 74 

Gow. Why, the enemy is loud ; you hear him all 
night. 

Phi. If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a 
prating coxcomb, is it meet, think yon, that we should 
also, look you, be an ass and a fool and a prating 
coxcomb ? in your own conscience, now ? 80 

Gow. I will speak lower. 

66. admiration = wonder. Fluellen, rather pedantic, as 
usual, regrets that Henry does not keep up the discipline that 
he imagines in Pompey's camp. 



98 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Flu. I pray you and peseech you that you will. 

[Exeunt Gower and Fluellen. 

K. Hen. Though it appear a little out of fashion, 
There is much care and valour in this Welshman. 

Enter three soldiers, John Bates, Alexander Court, and Michael 
Williams. 

Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morn- 
ing which breaks yonder? 

Bates. I think it be : but we have no great cause 
to desire the approach of day. 88 

Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day, 
but I think we shall never see the end of it. Who 
goes there ? 

K. Hen. A friend. 

Will. Under what captain serve you ? 

K. Hen. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. 

Will. A good old commander and a most kind 
gentleman : I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? 

K. Hen. Even as men wrack'd upon a sand, that 
look to be wash'd off the next tide. 98 

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the King ? 

K. Hen. No ; nor it is not meet he should. For, 
though I speak it to you, I think the King is but a 
man, as I am : the violet smells to him as it doth to 
me ; the element shows to him as it doth to me ; all his 
senses have but human conditions : his ceremonies laid 
by, in his nakedness he appears but a man ; and though 
his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when 
they stoop, they stoop with the like wing. Therefore 

83. Flnellen is old-fashioned. 
96. estate = condition. 

103. element = sky: really but one of what were held the 
four elements; earth, air, fire, water. Cf. Ill, vii, 21. 
106. affections = emotions. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 99 

when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, cut 
of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are : yet, in rea- 
son, no man should possess him with any appearance of 
fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army. 

Bates. He may show what outward courage he 
will ; but I believe, as cold a night as 't is, he could 
wish himself in Thames up to the neck ; and so I 
would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we 
were quit here. 

K. Hen. By my troth, I will speak my conscience 
of the King : I think he would not wish himself any 
where but where he is. 119 

Bates. Then I would he were here alone ; so should 
he be sure to be ransomed, and a many poor men's 
lives saved. 

K. Hen. I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish 
him here alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other 
men's minds : methinks I could not die any where so 
contented as in the King's company ; his cause being 
just and his quarrel honourable. 

Will. That 's more than we know. 

Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after ; for 
we know enough, if we know we are the King's sub- 
jects : if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the 
King wipes the crime of it out of us. 132 

Will. But if the cause be not good, the King him- 
self hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those 
legs and arms and heads, chopp'd off in a battle, shall 
join together at the latter day and cry all, We died at 
such a place ; some swearing, some crying for a sur- 
geon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, 
some upon the debts they owe, some upon their chil- 
dren rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well 
140. rawly = lately, just. 



100 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

that die in a battle ; for how can they charitably dis- 
pose of any thing, when blood is their argument? 
Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black 
matter for the King that led them to it ; whom to 
disobey were against all proportion of subjection. 145 
K. Hen. So, if a son that is by his father sent 
about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, 
the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should 
be imposed upon his father that sent him : or if a ser- 
vant, under his master's command transporting a sum 
of money, be assailed by robbers and die in many ir- 
reconcil'd iniquities, you may call the business of the 
master the author of the servant's damnation : but 
this is not so : the King is not bound to answer the 
particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his 
son, nor the master of his servant ; for they purpose 
not their death, when they purpose their services. 
Besides, there is no king, be his cause never so spot- 
less, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try 
it out with all unspotted soldiers : some perad venture 
have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived 
murder: some, of beguiling virgins with the broken 
seals of perjury ; some, making the wars their bul- 
wark, that have before gored the gentle bosom of peace 
with pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have de- 
feated the law and outrun native punishment, though 
they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from 
God : war is his beadle, war is his vengeance ; so that 
here men are punish' d for before-breach of the King's 
laws in now the King's quarrel : where they feared 

146. Henry eludes the point which he perfectly understands, 
and has determined in his own mind already, I, ii, 25-32, 96. 
He prefers to elaborate an idea more likely to give heart to his 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 101 

the death, they have borne life away ; and where they 
would be safe, they perish: then if they die unpro- 
vided, no more is the King guilty of their damnation 
than he was before guilty of those impieties for the 
which they are now visited. Every subject's duty is the 
King's ; but every subject's soul is his own. There- 
fore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick 
man in his bed, wash every mote out of his conscience : 
and dying so, death is to him advantage ; or not dying, 
the time was blessedly lost wherein such preparation 
was gained : and in him that escapes, it were not sin 
to think that, making God so free an offer, He let him 
outlive that day to see His greatness and to teach 
others how they should prepare. 184 

Will. 'T is certain, every man that dies ill, the 
ill upon his own head, the King is not to answer it. 

Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me ; 
and yet I determine to fight lustily for him. 

K. Hen. I myself heard the King say he would 
not be ransom'd. 190 

Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully : 
but when our throats are cut, he may be ransom'd, and 
we ne'er the wiser. 

K. Hen. If I live to see it, I will never trust his 
word after. 

Will. You pay him then. That 's a perilous shot 
out of an elder-gun, that a poor and private displeasure 
can do against a monarch ! you may as well go about 
to turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a 
peacock's feather. You '11 never trust his word after ! 
come, 't is a foolish saying. 201 

K. Hen. Your reproof is something too round : I 

197. elder-gun: a gun made by a child out of an elderberry 
stem, by pushing the pith out. 



102 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

should be angry with you, if the time were conven- 
ient. 

Will. Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live. 

K. Hen. I embrace it. 
Will. How shall I know thee again ? 

K. Hen. Give me any gage of thine, and I will 
wear it in my bonnet : then, if ever thou dar'st ac- 
knowledge it, I will make it my quarrel. 210 

Will. Here 's my glove : give me another of thine. 

K. Hen. There. 

Will. This will I also wear in my cap : if ever thou 
come to me and say, after to-morrow, This is my glove, 
by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear. 

K. Hen. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. 

Will. Thou dar'st as well be hang'd. 

K. Hen. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in 
the King's company. 

Will. Keep thy word : fare thee well. 220 

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends : 
we have French quarrels enow, if you could tell how 
to reckon. 

K. Hen. Indeed, the French may lay twenty 
French crowns to one, they will beat us ; for they bear 
them on their shoulders : but it is no English treason 
to cut French crowns, and to-morrow the King him- 
self will be a clipper. [Exeunt Soldiers. 
Upon the King ! let us our lives, our souls, 
Our debts, our careful wives, 230 
Our children and our sins lay on the King ! 
We must bear all. O hard condition, 

228. clipper: money used to be made without the milling on 
the edge, so that it was possible to clip a little off a piece. 

230. careful = full of care. 

232. This speech, though perfectly appropriate, is really an 
elaborate piece of rhetoric. See Introduction, p. 16. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 103 

Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath 

Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel 

But his own wringing ! What infinite heart's-ease 

Must kings neglect, that private men enjoy ! 

And what have kings, that privates have not too, 

Save ceremony, save general ceremony ? 

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony ? 

What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more 240 

Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers ? 

What are thy rents ? what are thy comings in ? 

ceremony, show me but thy worth ! 
What is thy soul of adoration ? 

Art thou aught else but place, degree and form, 

Creating awe and fear in other men ? 

Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd 

Than they in fearing. 

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, 

But poison'd flattery ? O, be sick, great greatness, 250 

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure ! 

Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out 

With titles blown from adulation ? 

Will it give place to flexure and low bending ? 

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's 

knee, 
Command the health of it ? No, thou proud dream, 
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose ; 

1 am a king that find thee, and I know 

'T is not the balm, the sceptre and the ball, 

The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, 260 

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl, 

237. privates = private men. 

244. thy soul of adoration = the essence of the adoration 
of thee. W. 

259. balm, used at coronation. 



104 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

The farced title running 'fore the King, 
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp 
That beats upon the high shore of this world, 
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, 
Not all these, laid in bed majestical, 
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave, 
Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind 
Gets him to rest, ^cramm'd with distressful bread, 
Never sees horrid night, the child of hell, 270 

But, like a lackey, from the rise to set 
Sweats in the eye of Phoebus, and all night 
Sleeps in Elysium ; next day after dawn, 
Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse, 
And follows so the ever-running year, 
With profitable labour, to his grave : 
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch, 
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, 
Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king. 
The slave, a member of the country's peace, 280 

Enjoys it ; but in gross brain little wots 
What watch the King keeps to maintain the peace, 
Whose hours the peasant best advantages. 
Enter Erpingham. 

Erp. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, 
Seek through your camp to find you. 

K. Hen. Good old knight, 

Collect them all together at my tent : 
I '11 be before thee. 

Erp. I shall do 't, my lord. [Exit. 

K. Hen. O God of battles ! steel my soldiers' 
hearts ; 

262. farced — stuffed and highly seasoned, a phrase from 
the kitchen. W. 

283. advantages = gets the good of, 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 105 

Possess them not with fear ; take from them now 
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers 290 
Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord, 
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault 
My father made in compassing the crown ! 
I Richard's body have interred new ; 
And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears 
Than from it issued forced drops of blood : 
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, 
Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up 
Toward heaven, to pardon blood ; and I have built 
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests 300 
Sins still for Richard's soul. More will I do ; 
Though all that I can do is nothing worth, 
Since that my penitence comes after all, 
Imploring pardon. 

Enter Gloucester. 

Glou. My liege ! 

K. Hen. My brother Glou'ster's voice ? Ay ; 

I know thy errand, I will go with thee : 
The day, my friends and all things stay for me. 

[Exeunt. *T) »/ 

Scene II. The French camp. 
Enter the Dauphin, Orleans, Bambures, and others. 
Orl. The sun doth gild our armour ; up, my lords ! 
Dau. Montez a cheval / My horse! varlet! la- 

quaisf ha! 
Orl. O brave spirit ! 

293. See Richard II, Act V. 

300. sad = serious. 

2. Montez a cheval = mount, as we say in English, simply. 
These French phrases are of no importance, and were put in 
here merely to give a French flavor to the scene, and make the 
commoner sort of spectators gape. W. 



106 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Dau. Via I les eaux et la terre. 
Orl. Rien puis? Vairetlefeu. 
Dau. Clel, cousin Orleans. 

Enter Constable. 
Now, my Lord Constable ! 

Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service 

neigh ! 
Dau. Mount them, and make incision in their hides, 
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, 10 

And dout them with superfluous courage, ha ! 

Ram. What, will you have them weep our horses' 
blood? 
How shall we, then, behold their natural tears? 

Enter Messenger. 

Mess. The English are embattled, you French 

peers. 
Con. To horse, you gallant princes ! straight to 

horse ! 
Do but behold yon poor and starved band, 
And your fair show shall suck away their souls, 
Leaving them but the shales and husks of men. 
There is not work enough for all our hands ; 
Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins 20 

To give each naked curtle-axe a stain, 
That our French gallants shall to-day draw out, 
And sheathe for lack of sport: let us but blow on 

them, 
The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them. 
'T is positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords, 
That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants, 
Who in unnecessary action swarm 
About our squares of battle, were enow 
To purge this field of such a hilding foe, 
11. dout — put out: do out, as don = do on, doff = do off. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 107 

Though we upon this mountain's basis by 30 

Took stand for idle speculation : 
But that our honours must not. What's to say? 
A very little little let us do, 
And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound 
The tucket sonance and the note to mount ; 
For our approach shall so much dare the field 
That England shall couch down in fear and yield. 
Enter Grandpre. 
Grand. Why do you stay so long, my lords of 
France ? 
Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones, 
Ill-favouredly become the morning field : 40 

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose, 
And our air shakes them passing scornfully : 
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host 
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps : 
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, 
W^ith torch-staves in their hand ; and their poor 

jades 
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips, 
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes, 
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal bit 
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless ; 50 
And their executors, the knavish crows, 
Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour. 

31. speculation = looking on. 

35. tucket sonance = a large Italianish phrase for the moni- 
tory flourish upon a trumpet. W. 

39. desperate = hopeless. 

44. beaver = the upper part of the helmet. 

49. gimmal bit = a bit made with two rings, one of which 
played within the other ; a sort of curb bit. W. 

51. executors = those who will look after their business 
when they are dead. 



108 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Description cannot suit itself in words 
To demonstrate the life of such a battle 
In life so lifeless as it shows itself. 

Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay 
for death. 

Dau. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh 
suits 
And give their fasting horses provender, 
And after fight with them? 

Con. I stay but for my guard : on to the field ! 60 
I will the banner from a trumpet take, 
And use it for my haste. Come, come, away ! 
The sun is high, and we outwear the day. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. The English camp. 

Enter Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham, with all his 
host: Salisbury and Westmoreland. 

Glou. Where is the King? 

Bed. The King himself is rode to view their battle. 

West. Of fighting men they have full three score 
thousand. 

Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are 
fresh. 

Sal. God's arm strike with us ! 't is a fearful odds. 
God b' wi' you, princes all ; I '11 to my charge : 
If we no more meet till we meet in heaven, 
Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford, 
My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter, 
And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu ! 10 

Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury ; and good luck go 
with thee ! 

Exe. Farewell, kind lord ; fight valiantly to-day : 

61. I . . . take : he will not wait for his own standard 
bearers : trumpet = a trumpeter. 



Scene III] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 109 

And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, 
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour. 
> [Exit Salisbury. 

Bed. He is as full of valour as of kindness ; 
Princely in both. 

Enter the King. 

West. O that we now had here 

But one ten thousand of those men in England 
That do no work to-day ! 

K. Hen. What 's he that wishes so 

My cousin Westmoreland ? No, my fair cousin : 
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow 20 

To do our country loss ; and if to live, 
The fewer men, the greater share of honour. 
God's will ! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold, 

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost ; 
It yearns me not if men my garments wear ; 
Such outward things dwell not in my desires : 
But if it be a sin to covet honour, 
I am the most offending soul alive. 
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England : 30 
God's peace ! I would not lose so great an honour 
As one man more, methinks, would share from me 
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more ! 
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, 
That he which hath no stomach to this fight, 
Let him depart ; his passport shall be made 
And crowns for convoy put into his purse : 
We would not die in that man's company 
That fears his fellowship to die with us. 
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian : 40 

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 
26. yearns = vexes. 



110 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [A«t IV 

Will stand £ tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 
And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 
He that shall live this day, and see old age, 
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 
And say To-morrow is Saint Crispian : 
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, 
And say These wounds I had on Crispin's day. 
Old men forget ; yet all shall be forgot, 
But he '11 remember with advantages 50 

What feats he did that day : then shall our names, 
Familiar in his mouth as household words, " 

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, 
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, 
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. 
This story shall the good man teach his son ; 
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, \ 

From this day to the ending of the world, 
But we in it shall be remembered ; 
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ; 60 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 
Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile, 
This day shall gentle his condition : , 

And gentlemen in England now a-bed \ 

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not heife, 
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. 
Re-enter Salisbury. 
Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed : 

45. vigil : the night before a saint's day. 

57. Crispin and Crispianus were two Christian shoemakers 
and martyrs about the end of the third century. W. 

63. gentle his condition = give him the rank of a gentle- 
man. W. 

68. bestow = put yourself in order. 



Scene III] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 111 

The French are bravely in their battles setf, 
And will with all expedience charge on us. 70 

K. Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so. 
West. Perish the man whose mind is backward 

now ! 
K. Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from Eng- 
land, coz? 
West. God's will ! my liege, would you and I alone, 
Without more help, could fight this royal battle ! 
K. Hen. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thou- 
sand men ; 
Which likes me better than to wish us one. 
You know your places : God be with you all ! 

Tucket. Enter Montjoy. 

Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, King 
Harry, 
If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, 80 

Before thy most assured overthrow : 
For certainly thou art so near the gulf, 
Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy, 
The Constable desires thee thou wilt mind 
Thy followers of repentance ; that their souls 
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire 
From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies 
Must lie and fester. 

K. Hen. Who hath sent thee now? 

Mont. The Constable of France. 

K. Hen. I pray thee, bear my former answer back : 
Bid them achieve me and then sell my bones. 91 

Good God ! why should they mock poor fellows thus ? 
The man that once did sell the lion's skin 
While the beast liv'd, was killed with hunting him. 

82. gulf. Cf. II, iv, 10. 
84. mind = remind. 



112 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

A many of our bodies shall no doubt 
Find native graves ; upon the which, I trust, 
Shall witness live in brass of this day's work : 
And those that leave their valiant bones in France, 
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills, 
They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet 
them, 100 

And draw their honours reeking up to heaven ; 
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime, 
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France. 
Mark then abounding valour in our English, 
That being dead, like to the bullet's grazing, 
Break out into a second course of mischief, 
Killing in relapse of mortality. 
Let me speak proudly : tell the Constable 
We are but warriors for the working-day ; 
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd 110 

With rainy marching in the painful field ; 
There 's not a piece of feather in our host — 
Good argument, I hope, we will not fly — 
And time hath worn us into slovenry : 
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim ; 
And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night 
They '11 be in fresher robes, or they will pluck 
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads 
And turn them out of service. If they do this, — 
As, if God please, they shall, — my ransom then 120 
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour; 
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald : 

104. abounding: possibly "abounding;" in either case S. 
doubtless had both words in mind, when his propensity to fanci- 
ful conceit in language led him to deform the beauty and smirch 
the splendor of this noble scene by this and the preceding passage 
of Henry's speech. W. 



Scene IV] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 113 

They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints ; 
Which if they have as I will leave 'em them, 
Shall yield them little, tell the Constable. 

Mont. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well : 
Thou never shalt hear herald any more. [Exit. 

K. Hen. I fear thou 'It once more come again for 
ransom. 

Enter York. 
York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg 
The leading of the vaward. 130 

K. Hen. Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march 

away : ^ 

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day ! 



"- S3 (\- 



Scene IV. The field of battle. 

Alarum. Excursions. Enter Pistol, French Soldier, and Boy. 

Pist. Yield, cur ! 

Fr. Sol. Je pense que vous etes gentilhomme de 
bonne qualite. 

Pist. Qualtitie calmie custure me ! Art thou a 
gentleman ? what is thy name ? discuss. 

Fr. Sol. O Seigneur Dieu ! 

Pist. O, Signieur Dew should be a gentleman : 
Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark ; 
O Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox, 
Except, O signieur, thou do give to me 10 

Egregious ransom. 

Scene IV. As it is impossible actually to present the battle 
(IV, Prol. 48 ff.) Shakespeare does not try to do so. He does not 
even present to us single combats: this exploit of the coward 
Pistol is enough to show what the rest of the army did. 

2. Je pense, etc. = I suppose that you are a gentleman of 
good quality. W. 

4. Pistol's French is mere meaningless gabble. W. 

9. fox = sword. W. 



114 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Fr. Sol. O, prenez wdsericorde ! ayez pitie de 
moil 

Plst. Moy shall not serve ; I will have forty moys ; 
Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat 
In drops of crimson blood. 

Fr. Sol. Fst-il impossible d'echapper la force de 
ton bras f 

Fist. Brass, cur ! 
Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat, 20 

Offer'st me brass ? 

Fr. Sol. O pardonnez moi ! 

Fist. Say'st thou me so ? is that a ton of moys ? 
Come hither, boy : ask me this slave in French 
What is his name. 

Boy. Fcoutez : comment etes-vous appele ? 

Fr. Sol. Monsieur le Fer. 

Boy. He says his name is Master Fer. 

Fist. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him, and 
ferret him : discuss the same in French unto him. 30 

Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, 
and firk. 

Fist. Bid him prepare ; for I will cut his throat. 

Fr. Sol. Que dit-il, monsieur ? 

Boy. 11 me commande devous dire que vous faites 
nous pret ; car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette 
heure de couper voire gorge. 

12. O, prenez, etc. = O have mercy, take pity upon me. W. 
15. rim = midriff. W. 

17. Est-il impossible, etc. a= Is it impossible to escape the 
power of thy arm ? W. 

26. Ecoutez, etc. = Hear ! what is your name ? W. 

34. Que dit-il ? = What does he say ? W. 

35. II me command, etc. = He bids me tell you to make 
yourself ready ; for this soldier is disposed to cut your throat 
at once, W. 



Scene IV] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 115 

Pist. Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy, 
Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns ; 
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword. 40 

Fr. Sol. O, je vous supplie, pour V amour de 
Dieu, me pardonner ! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne 
maison : gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux 
cents ecus. 

Pist. What are his words ? 

Boy. He prays you to save his life : he is a gentle- 
man of a good house ; and for his ransom he will give 
you two hundred crowns. 

Pist. Tell him my fury shall abate, and I 
The crowns will take. 50 

Fr. Sol. Petit monsieur, que dit-il f 

Boy. Encore qiiil est contre son jurement de par- 
donner aucun prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les Sous 
que vous Vavez promis, il est content de vous donner 
la liberie, le franchisement 

Fr. Sol. Sur mes genouxje vous donne mille re- 
mercimens ; et je mestime heureux que je suis tombe 
entre les mains d\m chevalier , je pense, le plus brave, 
vaillant, et tres distingue seigneur d* Angleterre. 
s Pist. Expound unto me, boy. 60 

Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand 
thanks ; and he esteems himself happy that he hath 
fallen into the hands of one, as he thinks, the most 

38. Owy . . . permafoy. Pistol's French rarely has much 
meaning: this, however, means, " Oh, yes: cut his throat, by my 
faith." Pistol knew so much French, at least, before coming to 
France, II, i, 72. 

*-41. O, je vous, etc. = The boy translates here, and also below, 
Sur mes genoux. W. 

52. Encore qu'il est, etc. = Although it is contrary to his 
oath to spare any prisoner, nevertheless, for the crowns you have 
promised, he is willing to set you at liberty. W.' 



116 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of Eng- 
land. 65 

Pist. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. 
Follow me ! 

Boy. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. [Exeunt 
Pistol, and French Soldier. ~] I did never know so full 
a voice issue from so empty a heart : but the saying 
is true, " The empty vessel makes the greatest sound." 
Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than 
this roaring devil i' th' old play, that every one may 
pare his nails with a wooden dagger ; and they are 
both hang'd ; and so would this be, if he durst steal 
any thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, 
with the luggage of our camp : the French might have 
a good prey of us, if he knew of it ; for there is none 
to guard it but boys. [Exit. 

Scene V. Another part of the field. 
Enter Constable, Orleans, Bourbon, Dauphin, and Rambures. 

Con. O diable ! 

Orl. O seigneur! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu ! 

Dau. Mort de ma vie I all is confounded, all ! 
Reproach and everlasting shame 
Sits mocking in our plumes. mechante fortune! 

Do not run away. [A short alarum. 

Con. Wiry, all our ranks are broke. 

68. Suivez-vous, etc. = Follow the great captain. W. 

73. devil: the Devil in the Miracle Flays was a blustering, 
humorous character. In the next clause the construction is 
mixed by the use of his nails instead of the grammatical the 
nails of. 

2. O seigneur, etc. = O Lord, the day is lost, all is lost ! W. 

3. Mort de ma vie = Death of my life; a common French 
imprecation. W. 

5. mechanic fortune = naughty, that is, wicked fortune. W. 



Scene VI] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 117 

Dau. O perdurable shame ! let 's stab ourselves. 
Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for ? 

Orl. Is this the king we sent to for Iris ransom ? 

Bour. Shame and eternal shame, nothing but 
shame ! 10 

Let 's die in honour : once more back again ; 
And he that will not follow Bourbon now, 
Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand, 
Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door. 

Con. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now ! 
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives. 

Orl. We are enow yet living in the field 
To smother up the English in our throngs, 
If any order might be thought upon. 

Bour. The Devil take order now! I'll to the 

throng : 20 

Let life be short ; else shame will be too long. [Exeunt. 



Scene VI. Another part of the field. 
Alarums. Enter King Henry and forces, Exeter, and others. 
K. Hen. Well have we done, thrice valiant coun- 
trymen : 
But all 's not done ; yet keep the French the field. 
Exe. The Duke of York commends him to your 

majesty. 
K. Hen. Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this hour 
I saw him down ; thrice up again, and fighting ; 
From helmet to the spur all blood he was. 

Exe. In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie, 
Larding the plain ; and by his bloody side, 
Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds, 
The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies. 10 

Suffolk first died : and York, all haggled over, 
7. perdurable — lasting. 



118 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd, 

And takes him by the beard ; kisses the gashes 

That bloodily did yawn upon his face ; 

And cries aloud " Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk ! 

My soul shall thine keep company to heaven ; 

Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast, 

As in this glorious and well-foughten field 

We kept together in our chivalry ! " 

Upon these words I came and cheer'd him up : 20 

He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand, 

And, with a feeble gripe, says " Dear my lord, 

Commend my service to my sovereign." 

So did he turn and over Suffolk's neck 

He threw his wounded arm and kiss'd his lips ; 

And so espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd 

A testament of noble-ending love. 

The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd 

Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd ; 

But I had not so much of man in me, 30 

And all my mother came into mine eyes 

And gave me up to tears. 

K. Hen. I blame you not ; 

For, hearing this, I must perforce compound 
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too. [Alarum. \^ 

But, hark ! what new alarum is this same ? -^/"V 

The French have reinf orc'd their scatter'd me£ : S 
Then every soldier kill his prisoners ; (°\P 
Give the word through. J^ [Exeunt. 

Scene VII. Another part of the field. 

Enter Fluellen and Gower. 

Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage ! 'tis expressly 

against the law of arms : 't is as arrant a piece of 

21. raught me == reached me; the O. E. preterite. W. 



Scene VII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 119 

knafery, mark you now, as can be offer't ; in your 
conscience, now, is it not ? 

Gow. 'Tis certain there 's not a boy left alive ; and 
the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done 
this slaughter : besides, they have burned and carried 
away all that was in the King's tent ; wherefore the 
King, most worthily, hath caus'd every soldier to cut 
his prisoner's throat. O, 't is a gallant king ! 10 

Flu. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain 
Gower. What call you the town's name where Alex- 
ander the Pig was born ! 

Gow. Alexander the Great, 

Flu. Why, I pray you, is not pig great ? the pig, or 
the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnani- 
mous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase is a 
little fariations. 

Gow. I think Alexander the Great was born in 
Macedon : his father was called Philip of Macedon, 
as I take it. 21 

Flu. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is 
porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of 
the 'orld, I warrant you sail find, in the comparisons 
between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, 
look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon ; 
and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth : it is 
call'ed Wye at Monmouth ; but it is out of my prains 
what is the name of the other river ; but 't is all one, 
't is alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is 
salmons in both. If you mark Alexander's life well, 
Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent 
well ; for there is figures in all things. Alexander, 
God knows, and you know, in his rages, and his furies, 
and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and 
32. is come after it = resembles it. 



120 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

his displeasures, and his indignations, and also being 
a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his 
angers, look you, kill his best friend, Cleitus. 

Gow. Our King is not like him in that : he never 
kill'd any of his friends. 40 

Flu. It is not well done, mark you now, to take 
the tales out of my mouth, ere it is made and finished. 
I speak but in the figures and comparisons of it : as 
Alexander killed his friend Cleitus, being in his ales 
and his cups ; so also Harry Monmouth, being in his 
right wits and his good judgements, turn'd away the 
fat knight with the great-belly-doublet : he was full 
of jests, and gipes, and knaferies, and mocks ; I have 
forgot his name. 

Gow. Sir John Falstaff. 50 

Flu. That is he : I '11 tell you there is good men 
porn at Monmouth. 

Gow. Here comes his majesty. 

Alarum. Enter King Henry and forces : Warwick, Gloucester, 
i Exeter, Williams, and others. 

K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to France 

Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald ; 

Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill : 

If they will fight with us, bid them come down, 

Or void the field ; they do offend our sight : 

If they '11 do neither, we will come to them, 

And make them skirr away, as swift as stones 60 

Enforced from the old Assyrian slings : 

Besides, we '11 cut the throats of those we have, 

And not a man of them that we shall take 

Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. 

Enter Mont joy. 

Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. 
Glo. His eyes are humbler than they used to be. 



Scene VII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 121 

IT. Hen. How now ! what means this, herald ? 
know'st thou not 
That I have fin'cl these bones of mine for ransom ? 
Com'st thou again for ransom ? 

Mont. No, great king : 

I come to thee for charitable license, 70 

That we may wander o'er this bloody field 
To look our dead, and then to bury them ; 
To sort our nobles from our common men. 
For many of our princes — woe the while ! — 
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood ; 
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs 
In blood of princes ; and their wounded steeds 
Fret fetlock deep in gore and with wild rage 
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, 
Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king, 80 
To view the field in safety and dispose 
Of their dead bodies ! 

K. Hen. I tell thee truly, herald, 

I know not if the day be ours or no ; 
For yet a many of your horsemen peer 
And gallop o'er the field. 

Mont. The day is yours. 

K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength, 
for it ! 
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? 

Mont. They call it Agincourt. 

K. Hen. Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 90 

Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an 't 

please your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward 

the Plack Prince of Wales, as I have read in the 

chronicles, fought a most prave pattle here in France. 

74. woe the while = woe be to the day. 



V 



122 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

K. Hen. They did, Fluellen. 

Flu. Your majesty says very true : if your majes- 
ties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good ser- 
vice in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks 
in their Monmouth caps ; which, your majesty know, 
to this hour is an honourable badge of the service ; 
and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear 
the leek upon Saint Tavy's day. 102 

K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour ; 
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 

Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your ma- 
jesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you 
that. God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases 
his grace, and his majesty too ! 

K. Hen. Thanks, good my countryman. 109 

Flu. By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, I 
care not who know it ; I will confess it to all the 'orld : 
I need not to be ashamed of your majesty, praised be 
God, so long as your majesty is an honest man. 

K. Hen. God keep me so ! Our heralds go with him : 
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead 
On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither. 

[Points to Williams. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy. 

Exe. Soldier, you must come to the King. 

K. Hen. Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in 
thy cap? 119 

Will. An 't please your majesty, 't is the gage of 
one that I should fight withal, if he be alive. 

K. Hen. An Englishman? 

Will. An 't please your majesty, a rascal that 
swagger'd with me last night ; who, if alive and ever 

99. Monmouth caps = a kind of woolen cap made at Mon- 
mouth and much worn by soldiers. W. 
104. Henry was born at Monmouth. 
124. -who if alive : Perhaps " if 'a live " = if he live. W. 



Scene VII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 123 

dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him 
a box o' th' ear : or if I can see my glove in his cap, 
which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear if 
alive, I will strike it out soundly. 

K. Hen. What think you, Captain Fluellen ? is 
it fit this soldier keep his oath ? 130 

Flu. He is a crafen and a fillain else, an 't please 
your majesty, in my conscience. 

K. Hen. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of 
great sort, quite from the answer of his degree. 

Flu. Though he be as good a gentleman as the 
Devil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is neces- 
sary, look your grace, that he keep his fow and his 
oath : if he be perjur'd, see you now, his reputation is as 
arrant a villain and a Jacksauce, as ever his black 
shoe trod upon God's ground and his earth, in my 
conscience, la! 141 

K. Hen. Then keep tlry vow, sirrah, when thou 
meet'st the fellow. 

Will. So I will, my liege, as I live. 

K. Hen. Who serv'st thou under ? 
Will. Under Captain Gower, my liege. 

Flu. Gower is a good captain, and is good know- 
ledge and literatnred in the wars. 

K. Hen. Call him hither to me, soldier. 149 

Will. I will, my liege. [#**'• 

K. Hen. Here, Fluellen ; wear thou this favour for 
me and stick it in thy cap : when Alencon and myself 
were down together, I pluck'd this glove from his helm : 
if any man challenge this, he is a friend to Alencon, 
and an enemy to our person ; if thou encounter any 
such, apprehend him, an thou dost me love. 

134. quite; i. e. of rank very unequal to his degree. 

148. literatured — well-read ; high praise in Fluellen's mind. 



124 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Flu. Your grace doo's me as great honours as can 
be desir'd in the hearts of his subjects : I would fain 
see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find 
himself aggriefed at this glove ; that is all ; but I 
would fain see it once, an please God of his grace that 
I might see. 162 

K. Hen. Know'st thou Gower ? 

Flu. He is my tear friend, an please you. 

K. Hen. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to 
my tent. 

Flu. I will fetch him. [Exit. 

K. Hen. My Lord of Warwick, and my brother 
Gloucester, 
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels : 
The glove which I have given him for a favour 170 
May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear ; 
It is the soldier's ; I by bargain should 
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick : 
If that the soldier strike him, as I judge "**" 
By his blunt bearing he will keep his word, 
Some sudden mischief may arise of it ; r— ' 
For I do know Fluellen valiant 
And, touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder, 
And quickly will return an injury : 
Follow, and see there be no harm between them. 180 
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. [Exeunt. 

Scene VIII. Before King Henry's pavilion. 
Enter Gower and Williams. 
Will. I warrant it is to knight you, captain. 

Enter Fluellen. 
Flu. God's will and his pleasure, captain, I peseech 
you now, come apace to the King : there is more good 
178. touch'd -with choler, when irritated. 



Scene VIII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 125 

toward you peradventure than is in your knowledge to 
dream of. 

Will. Sir, know you this glove ? 
Flu. Know the glove ! I know the glove is a glove. 

Will. I know this ; and thus I challenge it. 

[Strikes him. 

Flu. 'Sblood ! an arrant traitor as any is in the 
universal world, or in France, or in England ! 10 

Gow. How now, sir ! you villain ! 
Will. Do you think I '11 be forsworn ? 

Flu. Stand away, Captain Gower ; I will give 
treason his payment into plows, I warrant you. 

Will. I am no traitor. 

Flu. That 's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in 
his majesty's name, apprehend him : he 's a friend of 
the Duke Alencon's. 

Enter Warwick and Gloucester. 

War. How now, how now ! what's the matter? 

Flu. My Lord of Warwick, here is — praised be 

God for it ! — a most contagious treason come to light, 

look you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here 

is his majesty. 23 

Enter King Henry and Exeter. 

K. Hen. How now ! what 's the matter ? 

Flu. My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, 
look your grace, has struck the glove which your 
majesty is take out of the helmet of Alencon. 

Will. My liege, this was my glove ; here is the 
fellow of it ; and he that I gave it to in change 
promis'd to wear it in his cap : I promis'd to strike 
him, if he did : I met this man with my glove in his 
cap, and I have been as good as my word. 32 

Flu. Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's 

14. into — in, probably, although Capel has conjectured in two. 



126 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

manhood, what an arrant, rascally, peggarly, lousy 
knave it is : I hope your majesty is pear me testimony 
and witness, and will avouchment, that this is the 
glove of Alencon, that your majesty is give me ; in 
your conscience, now ? 

K. Hen. Give me thy glove, soldier : look, here is 
the fellow of it. 40 

'T was I, indeed, thou promisedst to strike ; 
And thou hast given me most bitter terms. 

Flu. An please your majesty, let his neck answer 
for it, if there is any martial law in the world. 

K. Hen. How canst thou make me satisfaction ? 

Will. All offences, my lord, come from the heart : 
never came any from mine that might offend your 
majesty. 

K. Hen. It was ourself thou didst abuse. 49 

Will. Your majesty came not like yourself : you 
appear'd to me but as a common man ; witness the 
night, your garments, your lowliness ; and what your 
highness suffer'd under that shape, I beseech you take 
it for your own fault and not mine : for had you been 
as I took you for, I made no offence ; therefore, I be- 
seech your highness, pardon me. 

K. Hen. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with 
crowns, 
And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow ; 
And wear it for an honour in thy cap 
Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns : 60 

And, captain, you must needs be friends with him. , 

Flu. By this day and this light, the fellow has 
mettle enough in his belly. Hold, there is twelve pence 
for you ; and I pray you to serve Cot, and keep you 
out of prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissen- 
sions, and, I warrant you, it is the better for you. 



Scene VIII] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 127 

Will I will none of your money. 

Flu. It is with a good will ; I can tell you, it will 
serve you to mend your shoes : come, wherefore should 
you be so pashful? your shoes is not so good : 'tis a 
good silling, I warrant you, or I will change it. 71 

Enter an English Herald. 

K. Hen. Now, herald, are the dead number'd ? 

Her. Here is the number of the slaughter'd French. 

K. Hen. What prisoners of good sort are taken, 
uncle ? 

Exe. Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the 
King; 
John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt : 
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires, 
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men. 

K. Hen. This note doth tell me of ten thousand 
French 
That in the field lie slain : of princes, in this number, 
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead 81 

One hundred twenty six : added to these, 
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen, 
Eight thousand and four hundred ; of the which, 
Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights : 
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost, 
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries : 
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires, 
And gentlemen of blood and quality. 
The names of those their nobles that lie dead : 90 

81. bearing banners ; i. e. who led each his own force to 
the battle. 

87. mercenaries = soldiers who had pay; contradistinguished 
from those who fought under their own lords' banners. W. 

90. This list comprises most of those addressed by the King 
of France in III, v, 40-45. 



128 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act IV 

Charles Delabreth, High Constable of France ; 
Jacques of Chatillon, Admiral of France ; 
The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures ; 
Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard 

Dauphin, 
John Duke of Alencon, Anthony Duke of Brabant, 
The brother to the Duke of Burgundy, 
And Edward Duke of Bar : of lusty earls, 
Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix, 
Beaumont and Marie, Vaudemont and Lestrale. 
Here was a royal fellowship of death ! 100 

Where is the number of our English dead ? 

[Herald shows him another paper. 

Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, 

Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire : 

None else of name ; and of all other men 

But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here ; 

And not to us, but to thy arm alone, 

Ascribe we all ! When, without stratagem, 

But in plain shock and even play of battle, 

Was ever known so great and little loss 

On one part and on the other? Take it, God, 110 

For it is none but thine ! 

Exe. 'T is wonderful ! 

K. Hen. Come, go we in procession to the vil- 
lage: 
And be it death proclaim'd through our host 
To boast of this or take that praise from God 
Which is his only. 

103. Davy Gam. This brave Welshman saved Henry's life 
in the battle. Before the onset, Henry sent him to reconnoitre 
the enemy, and his report was, " May it please you, my liege, 
there are enough to be killed, enough to be taken prisoners, and 
enough to run away." W. 






Prologue] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 129 

Flu. Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to 
tell how many is kill'd? 

K. Hen. Yes, captain ; but with this acknowledg- 
ment, 
That God fought for us. 

Flu. Yes, my conscience, he did us great good. 

K. Hen. Do we all holy rites : 121 

Let there be sung Non nobis and Te Deum ; 
The dead with charity enclosed in clay : 
And then to Calais ; and to England then : 
Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men. 

[Exeunt. 

ACT V 

PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chor. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the 
story, 
That I may prompt them : and of such as have, 
I humbly pray them to admit the excuse 
Of time, of numbers and due course of things, 
Which cannot in their huge and proper life 
Be here presented. Now we bear the King 
Toward Calais : grant him there ; there seen, 
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts 
Athwart tl^sea. Behold, the English beach 
Pales in the flood with men, with wives and boys, 10 
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea, 
Which like a mighty whiffler 'fore the King 

Prologue. The Prologue here recounts much that could not 
have been presented on the stage. 

12. -whiffler = an officer who headed processions, clearing 
the way by whiffling a wooden sword through the air. W. 



130 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

Seems to prepare his way : so let liim land, 

And solemnly see him set on to London. 

So swift a pace hath thought that even now 

You may imagine him upon Blackheath ; 

Wftere that his lords desire him to have borne 

His bruised helmet and his bended sword \ 

Before him through the city : he forbids it, 

Being free from vainness and self-grievous pride j 20 

Giving full trophy, signal and ostent 

Quite from himself to God. But now behold, 

In the quick forge and working-house of thought, 

How London doth pour out her citizens ! f 

The mayor and all his brethren in best sort, 

Like to the senators of th' antique Rome, 

With the plebeians swarming at their heels, 

Go forth and fetch their conquering Csesar in : 

As, by a lower but loving likelihood, 

Were now the general of our gracious empress, 30 

As in good time he may, from Ireland coming, 

Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, 

How many would the peaceful city quit, 

To welcome him ! much more, and much more cause, 

Did they this Harry. Now in London place him ; 

As yet the lamentation of the French 

Invites the King of England's stay at home ; 

The Emperor's coming in behalf of France, 

To order peace between them ; and omit 

All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd, 40 

Till Harry's back-return again to France : 

There must we bring him ; and myself have play'd 

30. the general of our gracious empress = the Earl of 
Essex, Robert Devereux. W. See Introduction, p. 3. 

38. The Emperor — Sigismund of Germany, Henry's cou- 
sin. W. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 131 

The interim, by remembering you 't is past. 
Then brook abridgement, and your eyes advance, 
After your thoughts, straight back again to France. 

«__^ Ubnt. 

Scene I. France. The English camp. 
Enter Fluellen and Gower. 

Gow. Nay, that 's right ; but why wear you your 
leek to-day ? Saint Davy's day is past. 

Flu. There is occasions and causes why and where- 
fore in all things: I will tell you, asse my friend, 
Captain Gower : the rascally, scauld, beggarly, lousy, 
pragging knave, Pistol, which you and yourself and 
all the world know to be no petter than a fellow, look 
you now, of no merits, he is come to me and prings me 
pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat 
my leek : it was in a place where I could not breed 
no contention with him ; but I will be so bold as to 
wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then 
I will tell him a little piece of my tesires. 13 

Enter Pistol. 

Gow. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey- 
cock. 

Flu. 'T is no matter for his swellings nor his tur- 
key-cocks. God pless you, Aunchient Pistol ! you 
scurfy, lousy knave, God pless you ! 

Fist. Ha ! art thou bedlam ? dost thou thirst, base 
Trojan, 
To have me fold up Parca's fatal web ? 20 

Hence ! I am qualmish at the smell of leek. 

Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurfy, lousy knave, 

44. brook abridgement : allow the shortening-. 

5. scauld = having a diseased scalp. W. 

19. Trojan was a slang name for any doubtful character. 



132 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

at my tesires, and my requests, and my petitions, to 
eat, look you, this leek : because, look you, you do not 
love it, nor your affections and your appetites and your 
digestions doo's not agree with it, I would tesire you 
to eat it. 

Pist. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats. 

Flu. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.'] 
Will you be so good, scauld knave, as eat it ? 30 

Pist. Base Trojan, thou shalt die. 

Flu. You say very true, scauld knave, when Cot's 
will is : I will desire you to live in the mean time, and 
eat your Actuals : come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes 
him.] You call'd me yesterday mountain-squire ; but 
I will make you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray 
you, fall to : if you can mock a leek, you can eat a 
leek. 38 

Gow. Enough, captain : you have astonish'd him. 

Flu. I say, I will make him eat some part of my 
leek, or I will peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray 
you ; it is good for your green wound and your ploody 
coxcomb. 

Pist. Must I bite? 

Flu. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt and out of 
question too, and ambiguities. 

Pist. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge : I 
eat, and yet I swear — 

Flu. Eat, I pray you : will you have some more 
sauce to your leek ? there is not enough leek to swear 
py. 51 

Pist. Quiet thy cudgel ; thou dost see I eat. 

Flu. Much good do you, scauld knave, heartily. 
Nay, pray you, throw none away ; the skin is coot 

28. Cadwallader = the last Welsh king of Wales. W. 
43. coxcomb = head. 



Scene I] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 133 

for your proken coxcomb. When you take occasions 
to see leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em ; that 
is all. 

Pist. Good. 

Flu. Ay, leeks is coot : hold you, there is a Croat 
to heal your pate. 60 

Pist. Me a groat ! 

Flu. Yes, ferily and in truth you shall take it ; 
or I have another leek in my pocket, which you shall 
eat. 

Pist. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge. 

Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in 
cudgels : you shall be a wood monger, and buy nothing 
of me but cudgels. God b' wi' you, and keep you, and 
heal your pate. [Exit. 

Pist. All hell shall stir for this. 70 

Gow. Go, go ; you are a counterfeit cowardly 
knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun 
upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable 
trophy of predeceased valour and dare not avouch in 
your deeds any of your words ? I have seen you gleek- 
ing and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You 
thought, because he could not speak English in the 
native garb, he could not therefore handle an English 
cudgel : you find it otherwise ; and henceforth let a 
Welsh correction teach you a good English condition. 
Fare ye well. [Exit. 

Pist. Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now ? 
News have I, that my Nell is dead i' th' spital ; 83 
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off. 
Old I do wax ; and from my weary limbs 

82. huswife = hussy. W. 

84. rendezvous, if it means anything, prohahly means rest. 
Cf. II, i, 16. 



134 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

Honour is cudgell'd. Well, bawd I '11 turn, 

And something lean to eutpurse of quick hand. 

To England will I steal, and there I '11 steal : 

And patches will I get unto these scars, 

And swear I got them in the Gallia wars. [Exit. 

Scene II. France. A royal palace. 

Enter, at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Gloucester, 
Warwick, Westmoreland, and other Lords ; at another, the 
French King, Queen Isabel, the Princess Katharine, Alice, 
and other Ladies ; the Duke of Burgundy, and his train. 

K. Hen. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are 
met ! 
Unto our brother France, and to our sister, 
Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes 
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine ; 
And, as a branch and member of this royalty, 
By whom this great assembly is contrived, 
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy ; 
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all ! 

Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your 
face, 
Most worthy brother England ; fairly met : 10 

So are you, princes English, every one. 

Q. Isa. So happy be the issue, brother England, 
Of this good day and of this gracious meeting, 
A s we are now glad to behold your eyes ; 
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them 
Against the French, that met them in their bent, 
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks : 

Scene II. France. This conference took place at Troyes. 
It is substantially historical, although Shakespeare hurries up 
matters somewhat on account of the necessities of the theatre. 

17. basilisks were fabled serpents with murderous eyes ; 
and the name was also that of a kind of cannon. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 135 

The venom of such looks, we fairly hope, 
Have lost their quality, and that this day 
Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love. 20 

K. Hen. To cry amen to that, thus we appear. 
Q. Isa. You English princes all, I do salute you. 
Bur. My duty to you both, on equal love, 
Great Kings of France and England ! That I have 

labour'd, 
With all my wits, my pains and strong endeavours, 
To bring your most imperial majesties 
Unto this bar and royal interview, 
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness. 
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd 
That, face to face and royal eye to eye, 30 

You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me, 
If I demand, before this royal view, 
What rub or what impediment there is, 
Why that the naked, poor and mangled Peace, 
Dear nurse of arts, plenties and joyful births, 
Should not in this best garden of the world, 
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage ? ^ 
Alas, she hath from France too long been chas'd, 
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, 
Corrupting in its own fertility. 40 

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, 
Unpruned dies ; her hedges even-pleach'd, 
Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, 
Put forth disorder'd twigs ; her fallow leas 

27. bar : is interpreted, barrier, place of congress ; but I 
doubt the word, for several reasons, and believe that we should 
read,/mr. W. 

33. rub = difficulty. 

42. even-pleach'd = having a smooth surface almost like a 

plank. W. 



136 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

The darnel, hemlock and rank fumitory 

Doth root upon, while that the coulter rusts 

That should deracinate such savagery ; 

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth 

The freckled cowslip, burnet and green clover, 

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, 50 

Conceives by idleness and nothing teems 

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kexes, burs, 

Losing both beauty and utility. 

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads and hedges, 

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness, 

Even so our houses and ourselves and children 

Have lost, or do not learn for want of time, 

The sciences that should become our country ; 

But grow like savages, — as soldiers will 

That nothing do but meditate on blood, — 60 

To swearing and stern looks, diffus'd attire 

And every thing that seems unnatural. 

Which to reduce into our former favour 

You are assembled : and my speech entreats 

That I may know the let, why gentle Peace 

Should not expel these inconveniences 

And bless us with her former qualities. 

K. Hen. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace, 
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections 
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace 70 
With full accord to all our just demands ; 
Whose tenours and particular effects 
You have enscheduled briefly in your hands. 

49. freckled == speckled. 

52. kexes : kex was-a name given to hollow-stalked weeds. W. 

65. let : one of those words that have two opposite meanings: 
it means to allow and to hinder, though the latter is now praC" 
tically obsolete : here it means hindrance. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 137 

Bur. The King hath heard them ; to the which as 
yet 
There is no answer made. 

1 K. Hen. Well then the peace, 

Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer. 

Ft. King. I have but with a cursorary eye 
O'erglanc'd the articles : pleaseth your grace 
To appoint some of your council presently 
To sit with us once more, with better heed 80 

To re-survey them, we will suddenly 
Pass our accept and peremptory answer. 

K. Hen. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter, 
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester, .Ah 
Warwick and Huntingdon, go with the King ; \ (r 
And take with you free power to ratify, 4/ 

Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best ^ W» 
Shall see advantageable for our dignity, » 
Any thing in or out of our demands, 
And we '11 consign thereto. Will you, fair sister, 90 
Go with the princes, or stay here with us? 

Q. Isa. Our gracious brother, I will go with them : 
Haply a woman's voice may do some good, 
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on. 

K. Hen. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with 
us: 
She is our capital demand, compris'd 
Within the fore-rank of our articles. 

Q. Isa. She hath good leave. 

[Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine, and Alice. 
K. Hen. Fair Katharine, and most fair, 

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms 

82. accept : used as an adjective, with its simple proper 
sense. W. 

94. nicely = particularly. 



138 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

Such as will enter at a lady's ear 100 

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart ? 

Kaih. Your majesty shall mock at me ; I cannot 
speak your England. 

K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me 
soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear 
you confess it brokenly with your English tongue. 
Do you like me, Kate ? 

Kath. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is " like me." 

K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are 
like an angel. 110 

Kath. Que dit-il ? qneje suis sembldble a les anges f 

Alice. Oui, vr aimerit, saufvotre grace, ainsi dit-il. 

K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine ; and I must 
not blush to affirm it. 

Kath. O bon Dieu! les langues des hommes sont 
pleines de tromperies. 

K. Hen. What says she, fair one ? that the tongues 
of men are full of deceits ? 

Alice. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of 
deceits : dat is de Princess. 120 

K. Hen. The Princess is the better Englishwoman. 
I' faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding : 
I am glad thou canst speak no better English ; for, if 
thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain king 
that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm to buy 
my crown. I know no ways to mince it in love, but 
directly to say "I love you:" then if you urge me 
farther than to say " do you in faith ? " I wear out my 
suit. Give me your answer; i' faith, do: and so clap 
hands and a bargain : how say you, lady ? 130 

Kath, Sauf voire honneur, me understand veil. 

111. Que dit-il ? etc. = what says he, that I am like the angels? 
Alice replies that he does. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 139 

A. Hen. Marry, if you would put me to verses or to 
dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me : for 
the one, I have neither words nor measure, and for 
the other I have no strength in measure, yet a reason- 
able measure in strength. If I could win a lady at 
leap-frog, or by vaulting into my saddle with my ar- 
mour on my back, under the correction of bragging be 
it spoken, I should quickly leap into a w T ife. Or if I 
might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her 
favours, I could lay on like a butcher and sit like a 
jack-an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I can- 
not look greenly nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I 
have no cunning in protestation ; only downright oaths, 
which I never use till urg'd, nor never break for urg- 
ing. If thou canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, 
whose face is not worth sun-burning, that never looks 
in his glass for love of any thing he sees there, let 
thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier : 
if thou canst love me for this, take me ; if not, to say 
to thee that I shall die, is true ; but for thy love, 
by the Lord, no ; yet I love thee too. And while thou 
liv'st, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoined 
constancy ; for he perforce must do thee right, be- 
cause he hath not the gift to woo in other places : for 
these fellows of infinite tongue, that can rhyme them- 
selves into ladies' favours, they do always reason 
themselves out again. What ! a speaker is but a 
prater ; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall ; 
a straight back will stoop ; a black beard will turn 
white ; a curl'd pate will grow bald ; a fair face will 
wither ; a full eye will wax hollow : but a good heart, 

135. The pun is on the meanings of measure ; a metre, a dance, 
an amount. 

153. uncoined constancy : whose mind has never borne the 
stamp of another face. W. 



140 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

Kate, is the sun and the moon ; or rather the sun and 
not the moon ; for it shines bright and never changes, 
but keeps his course truly. If thou would have such a 
one, take me ; and take me, take a soldier ; take a sol- 
dier, take a king. And what say'st thou then to my 
love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. 

Kaih. Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of 
France? 170 

K Hen. No ; it is not possible you should love the 
enemy of France, Kate : but, in loving me, you should 
love the friend of France ; for I love France so well 
that I will not part with a village of it ; I will have 
it all mine : and, Kate, when France is mine and I 
am yours, then yours is France and you are mine. 

Kaih. I cannot tell vat is dat. 177 

K Hen. No, Kate ? I will tell thee in French ; 
which I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new- 
married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be 
shook off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et 
quand vous avez le possession de moi, — let me see, 
what then? Saint Denis be my speed! — done voire 
est France et vous etes mienne. It is as easy for me, 
Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much 
more French : I shall never move thee in French, un- 
less it be to laugh at me. 

Kaih. Sauf voire honneur, le Francois que vous 
parlez, il est meilleur que V Anglois lequel je parle. 189 

K. Hen. No, faith, is 't not, Kate : but thy speak- 
ing of my tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must 
needs be granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost 
thou understand thus much English, canst thou love 
me? 

188. Sauf votre honneur, etc. The princess tells him that 
his French is better than her English. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 141 

Kath. I cannot tell. 

K Hen. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? 
I '11 ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me : and at 
night, when you come into your closet, you '11 question 
this gentlewoman about me ; and I know, Kate, you 
will to her dispraise those parts in me that you love with 
your heart : but, good Kate, mock me mercifully ; the 
rather, gentle princess, because I love thee cruelly. If 
ever thou beest mine, Kate, as I have a saving faith 
within me tells me thou shalt, I get thee with scam- 
bling, and thou must therefore needs prove a good 
soldier-breeder : shalt not thou and I, between Saint 
Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, 
half English, that shall go to Constantinople and take 
the Turk by the beard ? shall we not ? what say'st thou, 
my fair flower-de-luce ? 210 

Kath. I do not know dat. 

K. Hen. No ; 't is hereafter to know, but now to 
promise : do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour 
for your French part of such a boy ; and for my Eng- 
lish moiety take the word of a king and a bachelor. 
How answer you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, 
mon tres cher et devin deesse f 

Kath. Your majestee ave fausse French enough to 
deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France. 219 

K. Hen. Now, fie upon my false French ! By mine 
honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate : by which 
honour I dare not swear thou lovest me ; yet my blood 
begins to flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding 
the poor and untempering effect of my visage. Now, 
beshrew my father's ambition ! he was thinking of 
civil wars when he got me : therefore was I created 

204. scambling = scrambling in a rough and tumble kind of 
way. W. 



142 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

with a stubborn outside, with an aspect of iron, that, 
when I come to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in 
faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I shall appear : 
my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer up of beauty, 
can do no more spoil upon my face : thou hast me, if 
thou hast me, at the worst ; and thou shalt wear me, 
if thou wear me, better and better : and therefore tell 
me, most fair Katharine, will you have me ? Put off 
your maiden blushes ; avouch the thoughts of your 
heart with the looks of an empress ; take me by the 
hand, and say, Harry of England, I am thine : which 
word thou shalt no sooner bless mine ear withal, but I 
will tell thee aloud, England is thine, Ireland is thine, 
France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is thine ; who, 
though I speak it before his face, if he be not fellow 
with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of 
good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music ; 
for thy voice is music and thy English broken ; there- 
fore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me 
in broken English ; wilt thou have me ? 

Kath. Dat is as it sail please de ro i mon pere. 

K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate ; it shall 
please him, Kate. 

Kath. Den it sail also content me. 250 

K. Hen. Upon that I kiss your hand, and call you 
my queen. 

Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez : ma 
foi,je ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur 
en baisant la main (Tune de votre seigneurie indigne 
serviteur ; excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon tres- 
puissant seigneur. 

243. broken music = harmony, music in parts. W. 
253. Laissez. The princess very humbly protests against 
King Henry's condescension in kissing her hand. W. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 143 

K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. 

Kath. Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees 
devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France. 

K. Hen. Madam my interpreter, what says she ? 

Alice. Dat it is not be cle fashion pour les ladies of 
France, — I cannot tell vat is baiser en Anglish. 263 

K. lien. To kiss. 

Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moi. 

IT. Hen. It is not a fashion for the maids in France 
to kiss before they are married, would she say? 

Alice. Oul, vraiment. 

K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great 
kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined 
within the weak list of a country's fashion : we are 
the makers of manners, Kate ; and the liberty that fol- 
lows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults ; as 
I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of your 
country in denying me a kiss : therefore, patiently and 
yielding. [Kissing her.'] You have witchcraft in 
your lips, Kate : there is more eloquence in a sugar 
touch of them than in the tongues of the French coun- 
cil ; and they should sooner persuade Harry of Eng- 
land than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes 
your father. 281 

Re-enter the French King and his Queen, Burgundy, and other 
Lords. 

Bur. God save your majesty ! my royal cousin, 
teach you our princess English ? 

K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, 
how perfectly I love her ; and that is good English. 

Bur. Is she not apt ? 

K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condi- 
tion is not smooth ; so that, having neither the voice 
286. apt = ready to learn. 



144 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure 
up the spirit of love in her, that he will appear in his 
true likeness. 291 

Bur. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I an- 
swer you for that. If you would conjure in her, you 
must make a circle ; if conjure up love in her in his 
true likeness, he must appear naked and blind. Can 
you blame her then, being a maid yet ros'd over with 
the virgin crimson of modesty, if she deny the appear- 
ance of a naked blind boy in her naked seeing self ? 
It were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to con- 
sign to. 300 

K. Hen. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is blind 
and enforces. 

Bur. They are then excus'd, my lord, when they 
see not what they do. 

K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to 
consent winking. 

Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if you 
will teach her to know my meaning : for maids, well 
summer'd and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew- 
tide, blind, though they have their eyes ; and then they 
will endure handling, which before would not abide 
looking on. 312 

K. Hen. This moral ties me over to time and a hot 
summer ; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in 
the latter end and she must be blind too. 

Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves. 

K. Hen. It is so : and you may, some of you, thank 
love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair 

294. conjure up; there is a good example of conjuration in 
2 Henry VI, I, iv. 

313. This . . . summer : Bartholomew-tide was about the 
end of summer. 



Scene II] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 145 

French city for one fair French maid that stands in 
my way. 320 

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, 
the cities turn'd into a maid ; for they are all girdled 
with maiden walls that war hath never entered. 

K Hen. Shall Kate be my wife ? 

Fr. King. So please you. 

K. Hen. I am content ; so the maiden cities you 
talk of may wait on her : so the maid that stood in 
the way for my wish shall show me the way to my 
will. 

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of rea- 
son. 331 

K. Hen. Is 't so, my lords of England ? 
West. The King hath granted every article : 
His daughter first, and then in sequel all, 
According to their firm proposed natures. 

Exe. Only he hath not yet subscribed this : 
Where your majesty demands, that the King of France, 
having any occasion to write for matter of grant, shall 
name your highness in this form and with this addition, 
in French, Notre tres-cherjils Henri, Hoi d* Angleterre, 
Heritier de France ; and thus in Latin, Prceclarissi- 
mus filius noster Henricus, Hex Anglim, et Hceres 
Francice. 343 

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, 
But your request shall make me let it pass. 

K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alliance, 
Let that one article rank with the rest ; 
And thereupon give me your daughter. 

339. addition = title. 

340. Notre tres-cher, etc. = Our very dear son Henry, King 
of England, Heir of France. Prceclarissimus, which should be 
prcecarissimus, was taken out of Holinshed. W. 



146 KING HENRY THE FIFTH [Act V 

Ft. King. Take her, fair son, and from her blood 
raise up 
Issue to me ; that the contending kingdoms 350 

Of France and England, whose very shores look 

pale 
With envy of each other's happiness, 
May cease their hatred, and this dear conjunction 
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord 
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance 
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France. 

All. Amen ! 

K. Hen. Now, welcome, Kate : and bear me witness 
all, 
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [Flourish. 

Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages, 360 
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one ! 
As man and wife, being two, are one in love, 
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, 
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, 
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, 
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, 
To make divorce of their incorporate league ; 
That English may as French, French Englishmen, 
Receive each other. God speak this Amen! 

All. Amen! 370 

K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage : on which 
day, 
My Lord of Burgundy, we '11 take your oath, 
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues. 
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me ; 
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be ! 

[Sennet. Exeunt. 

351. look pale : in allusion to the chalky cliffs on either side 
of the Channel. W. 



Epilogue] KING HENRY THE FIFTH 147 

EPILOGUE 

Enter Chorus. 

Chor. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen, 

Our bending author hath pursued the story, 
In little room confining mighty men, 

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. 
Small time, but in that small most greatly liv'd 

This star of England : Fortune made his sword ; 
By which the world's best garden he achiev'd, 

And of it left his son imperial lord. 
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King 

Of France and England, did this king succeed ; 10 
Whose state so many had the managing, 

That they lost France and made his England bleed : 
Which oft our stage hath shown ; and, for their sake, 
In your fair minds let this acceptance take. i Exit - 

Epilogue. The epilogue, or speech at the end, recommend- 
ing the play to the favor of the audience, was, like the prologue, 
not unusual in the Elizabethan drama. It lasted to rather a 
later period. Shakespeare uses the epilogue in several plays, 
The Tempest, Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, All 's 
Well that Ends Well, 2 Henry IV, and Henry VIII. He 
usually, however, has some other ending, a dance or a song 
as in Twelfth Night, Love's Labor's Lost, Much Ado About 
Nothing; or, as in the tragedies especially, words indicative of 
the players leaving the stage. It may be that Shakespeare did 
not always feel any necessity for the conventional apologies that 
usually made up the epilogue. He probably knew that his plays 
were good and needed no apology. 

13. Which oft, etc.: meaning the plays elder and later on the 
reign of Henry VI, which seems to have been a popular sub- 
ject. W. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Feb. 2009 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 
111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 



i 



D 



fcxA<x- q 



r A 




